Mass Effect: Purification
by ChanceOfFailure
Summary: Ethan Miller is a man who has one goal in mind, protecting the people he cares about, but a new threat emerges just one year after the Galaxy had its biggest threat in the Reapers. Time will tell if this new threat will be the end. But one question still remains, just who are they?
1. chapter 1

The year is 2164, seven years have passed since the First Contact War and twelve before the Skyllian Blitz.

Blake Miller begins running down the hallway of the hospital

 _panting_ "Hold on Miranda, I'm almost there. I won't be late." He hears screaming coming from down the hallway and looks for the room its coming from.

"Dammit...which room. Ah, here it is." _H_ _e bursts through the door to see his wife_ "Blake!" she cries out to him. Her hair glistening in the light of the hospital room and sweat rolls down her face. "Look." _she begins to uncover a newborn baby._ Blake walks up to her with tears beginning to well up in his vision. "He's so beautiful." he says. He looks at the baby, his new born baby boy and all he can do is take in every detail of the boy. He notices how much his face . "I'm sorry I missed it" he says as he looks at his wife. Miranda looks at him with kind eyes...the eyes he fell in love with. As he looks at her more and more all he can think about is the day they met. It was a routine service check for his skycar, he walked into the mechanic's garage and began searching for the owner.

As he was searching he felt a tap on his shoulder and he turned around to see a woman standing behind him. She mistook him for the mechanic and they both laughed when he told her otherwise. Now he's looking at her and he feels the same joy he felt when she said 'I do' "Its okay...I love you." she says. Blake looks at her and kisses her forehead "I love you too." he looks at his newborn son and begins to feel both a sense of pride for creating such a beautiful creature, and worry as this is he and Miranda's first child together.

He looks at the baby, his new born baby boy and all he can do is take in every detail of the boy. He notices how much his face resembles his own, from his blonde hair to his baby blue eyes. He continues looking at his newborn son until eventually he decides on a name.

"Ethan...". Miranda looks at Blake, and then their son "Ethan."

18 years later, the year is 2182. The Skyllian Blitz has since come and gone, Commander Shepard single handedly held off an entire enemy platoon on her own and has since been rewarded for her bravery. The day after the anniversary of the attack a now 18 year old Ethan awakes to find he is almost late for class on the final day before his graduation a week from now.

I wake up and look at the time "Oh shit!!!" I exclaim as I hurridly begin to grab my uniform and text books. "I'm late!!" I run down the hallway through the kitchen and toward the door but something stops me. "Where do you think you're going?" The voice calls out "I'm gonna be late to class. Its the last day before graduation." I say in a weary tone. I begin to start sweating when I hear footsteps coming toward me.

"You didn't seem to care about being late for curfew last night. Why should you care about being late for class?" The voice calls out.

"But dad if I'm late for class I won't be able to go to the graduation ceremony."

My father puts his hand on my shoulder "What happened? Freddy keep you out later than expected?"

I turn around "Yeah...we were out looking for parts for his dad's shuttle. We were planning on taking it down to the coast over summer break."

He frowns and looks at me "When were you planning on telling me this?"

I'm starting to get impatient "Dad I have to get going."

He looks at me again, his eyes filled with both love...and worry. "Ethan, you're already late so let me talk to you. You're mother and I are worried about you." when he said that I shake his hand off my shoulder and leave for school.

I'm already late enough...I just hope I can make it before the first class starts.

Luckily I manage to make it to my first class on time and my day goes on fairly normal. I start walking toward the cafeteria as the lunch bell rings when suddenly...

"Ethan!" Freddy Martinez, my best friend spots me and starts walking to me

"Whats the matter Ethan? You look like you had a rough morning."

"I wouldn't call it rough." I say as Freddy and I find a table and sit down "My dad saw me and tried to start the whole 'You're mother and I are worried about you' talk and I just left before I had to listen to it."

Freddy and I grab our lunch from the service mech passing out trays. "You think he knows? About you wanting to enlist?"He asks hesitant on what to think.

"I don't know...maybe." I say

My parents are both career millitary, my father is a Marine and mom...mom is a fighter pilot. Its not like my parents being in the Alliance isn't well known, on Elysium basically everyone has been enlisted one way or another.

My father has always told me that he doesn't want me to enlist, he says its too dangerous. Its not like I don't know that but...I want to do something with my life other than just live.

I want to see what the galaxy has to offer, I want to be able to tell my kids one day that I fought to protect them. Ever since I was a kid I wanted to be a marine since my dad was always telling me stories about all the places he'd been. Pallevan, Sur'Kesh, and even some colonies near the Terminus systems just to name a few.

"Even if he does its not gonna stop me. How did your parents react when they found out you were enlisting?"

We finish eating our lunch and he starts talking "Well my old man wasn't to thrilled when he found out. Once he calmed down and heard about it from my point of view he warmed up to the idea. He has a whole going away party planned for when i ship out for basic and everything."

We start walking toward the courtyard after we eat and sit down on a bench near the door. "I just hope my dad understands why I haven't told him." I say

as I put my hands over my face.

Freddy starts talking but the class bell rings and we stand up to go back to class. "Keep in touch alright."

I start walking toward my next class "I will."

After the last bell rings I start walking home to face the inevitable verbal thrashing I'll get for not only missing curfew, but also shrugging off my dad's attempt to talk to me but, when I got home the only thing I saw was...

"What are the police doing at my house?"

I walk inside to find a Millitary Police officer from the Alliance base talking to my mother.

"Mom, whats going on?" I ask. My mother is sitting in the living room in tears and when she sees me she stands up and runs to me with tears in her eyes

"Its your father sweety, hes...hes gone."

I'm confused "What do you mean gone?"

The officer stood up "I'm sorry son." He said. I'm starting to lose my patience

"Who the hell are you?! Wheres my dad?!" I yell

He walks over to me and places his hand on my shoulder "There was a robbery at the local goods shop. Your father attempted to stop it. Sadly he was shot and died from his wounds shortly after."

Died? But...but my dad can't die he's he's supposed to see me graduate. He just can't die, not like this. I look up at my mom while tears are starting to stream down my face

"Mom...tell me this, tell me its not true."

She looks at me with tears in her eyes. "I wish it wasn't...but it is."

She breaks down and starts screaming. I take her and hold her close until she calms down. I flinch at the thought of what my last conversation with my dad. He just wanted to help me and I shrugged him off like it was nothing.

He probably thought I hated him. I wish I could've said something to him, just to tell him I loved him. The officer looks at me and sits my mother and I in the living room.

"Blake came to my office last week, he gave me this and told me to give it to you when the time was right."

He opens his Omni-tool and it opens a vid on the screen in the wall. It shows my dad sitting in his office. Seeing his face makes my chest feel like it's about to split open. My mother breaks down again once my dad starts talking in the vid.

"I'm not really sure what to say here, I don't do these very often so I guess I'm gonna just get right into it. Miranda, I know our anniversary is coming up so that's part of the reason I'm even doing this."

Just hearing his voice hurt. I want to turn it off so I stand up, the officer stops me.

"Wait, theres a part in here for you too. He wanted me to play it for you." He speeds up the vid until it stops on the part he mentioned.

"Ethan...my boy, I know you and I don't always see eye to eye but I just want you to know that no matter what I love you with all my heart. Even thought you always try to hide things from your mother and I, we know you plan on enlisting after graduation. I know you're going out with Freddy tonight so I'll talk to you about this in the morning but incase I don't, I support what ever decision you make. I know you'll make a damn fine marine, you're a Miller, its in your blood to be in the Alliance. I love you son."

The vid cuts out after that and I sit back down and look at my mother

"You knew?"

She looks at me with tears still rolling down her face and nods

"We did. you had the same look on your face your father had when he enlisted."

The officer stands up "I think its about time I left. Mrs. Miller I'll leave the vid with you for when you want to watch it later on."

My mother and I walk him to the door and after he leaves we sit in the living room for hours just watching the vid looking at my dads face.

Graduation comes and goes, without my dad it feels like a waste of time. Seeing all these happy faces and smiles just makes me want to puke. The only good thing about it all is the smile on my mother's face when my name is called to grab my diploma. Afterwards Freddy comes up to my mom and I.

"Hey Ms. Miller...I'm sorry about your husband."

My mom smiles and hugs Freddy and his dad when he walks up.

"Thank you Freddy. I know if he was here, he'd be smiling at the fact you and Ethan graduated together."

I smile "He probably would've started cheering when I started walking up."

We laugh until my mother lookz at Freddy and I

"Any news on when you boys would be shipping out?"

The day my dad died was the last day of classes before graduation...luckily it gave my mom and I a week to grieve, his funeral luckily has already come and gone.

"We should be heading out early tomorrow morning."

Freddy says trying to break the silence.

My mom looks at both of us with a smile on her face "Do you know where you're going yet?"

Freddy and I both enlisted in the Alliance Marine Corps, but with all the enlisting being done especially with all the tension between the Turians and the Alliance nobody would be surprised if that tension turned into a powder keg. That all means that Freddy and I aren't going to be shipped to the same training facility. I will be going to Earth for basic while Freddy will be going to Jump Zero.

"I just hope you two are gonna be okay." my mom says while wiping tears from her face. "Don't worry mom, we'll be fine." I say trying to reasure her

The next morning I wake up as early as I can and meet Freddy outside my house since we are leaving at the same time. My mom and I both said our goodbyes last night so luckily I don't have to wake her up. I walk out with my bags and luggage and put them in the back. Freddy's skycar

"Thanks for the ride." I say as I get in.

"Not a problem man." He says as he starts the long drive to the Alliance hanger bay.

On the way there we pass the Memorial for the people who died during the Bllitz 6 years ago.

"Hey wasn't it near here where that marine held those Batarians off by herself? What was her name...? Shepard right?" I ask trying to make conversation.

"Oh yeah...it was right here. I wish we had time to stop, I'd love to get some pictures." sayz Freddy as he glances at the memorial.

The ride to the hangar bay is pretty uneventful after that...we try to make conversation recalling things we did when we were still kids but the only thing on Freddy's mind is getting to the hangar before we missed our shuttles.

 _I'll make you proud dad...I promise you that._

That's the only thing on my mind as we start getting closer and closer to the hangar. Once we finally arrive we get out of the skycar amd grab our luggage. Freddy walks up to me and sets his bag down

"Don't worry man...I know he'd be proud." he pulls me close and we hug.

"Thanks man." I say trying not to drop my bags.

Freddy looks at ne after letting go. "Who knows, maybe the next time we see eachother you'll have to call me sir."

He says with a big grin on his face.

"Not on your life." I say with a slight laugh in my voice.

We both pick up our bags, say our goodbyes and board our shuttles. The next few days are mostly spent getting to know the people that would be in my squad.

First there is Lance Thomas, he had about as much bigotry in his mind as there were bones in his body, he's slightly shorter than most people with long scruffy brown hair and a face that just screams 'fuck off' from what I understand he lost his sister during the First Contact War.

Next there is Aaron James, an absolute mountain of a man with a short beard and red hair that looks like he keeps them well trimmed who grew up on Elysium just like me. His family raised him farther down south than me. He luckily is a bit more open minded when it comes to aliens.

Lastly there is Jason Page, your basic self entitled rich boy with a face that you just want to hit, and a voice that makes you hate him more and more with every word.

Our days are spent shooting the breeze and talking about why we enlisted. Our nights are spent looking at vids of Alliance highlights from First Contact.

I'm laying down in my bunk looking at old pictures my mom sent me.

"Whose that?" I hear a voice coming from below my bunk.

I look down to see Page looking at my Omni-tool.

"You gonna answer me or just stare at me?"

I shake my head a bit and answer "My parents."

He looks a bit more at the picture on my Omni-tool

"They still back home?" He asked.

I start thinking about the vid my dad made and start to turn off the tool.

"My mom is." I say

"What about your dad?" Page asks.

I look down and Page starts to speak "He dead? You mind me asking how?"

"He was shot...trying to stop a robbery."

Just saying the words feels like I'm about to snap. At this point its been little over 10 days since he died.

"Sounds like it could've been avoided." He says as he goes back down to his bunk.

I'm confused...avoided how? "What does that mean? Avoided how?" I ask.

He looks at me with that smug look that never leaves his face and says

"Well if he just gave them what they wanted and stayed out of their way instead of playing hero like an idiot he'd still be alive."

I jump out of my bunk and get in his face "One more word Page...and I'll make you regret it. My father fought in the First Contact War, hes a hero, unlike your father. While My father was on the front lines during the Skyllian Blitz yours was cowering in his private shuttle huddled in a puddle of his own filth."

Page proceeds to get in my face.

"Don't be upset because my father can afford a private shuttle. I bet you've never even seen what a private shuttle looks like. I see whats going on. You're jealous of the fact that I still have a father to go back to while yours is just another corpse in the ground just waiting for the worms to eat away at it."

Without thinking I pinn him against the wall by his throat and begin squeezing with one hand and punching him in his smug face with the other.

"Hey hey knock if off!!!" James comes running from his bunk and pulls me off of Page.

Page proceeds to jump over James and lands a shot to my eye before Thomas was able to hold him back.

"Let me go James!! He's a dead man!!" I scream while trying to fight my way toward Page and shut him up for good. Nobody says that about my father and gets away with it... **nobody**. James holds me against the wall behind my bunk while Thomas holds Page against his. The yelling is loud enough that it wakes the entire room from their bunks.

Over the course of the next few days until we reached Earth, Page is moved to a different bunk area since he instigated the fight. Once we arrive on Earth and begin our training, our drill instructor: Gunnery Sergant Loomis catches wind of what happened between Page and I and makes us spar to settle our diffefences. He hands us both a full set of sparring gear and escorts us to the courtyard where the sparring matches take place.

"You two are here to settle your differences in a good old fashioned sparring match." He says while walking to the two of us.

He hands what looks like a giant padded staff to each of us and puts us in the center of a giant circle carved into the ground. I look at Page and the one thing on my mind is making sure he **never** dissrespects my family again.

"Hope you boys are ready, because you are not leaving until one of you backs down and admits who the better man is."

Sergant Loomis says as he walks out of the circle.

I'll show that smug prick why I'm the better man. No matter what happens he'll admit it. Page looks at me and shows the grin that causes me to grit my teeth

"Just don't cry home back to mommy when I spank you in front of the Sergant Miller."

"Be sure to have your father buy you a new skycar to make up for the embarresment of having your ass kicked." I say showing Page a smug grin of my own

Sergant Loomis' voice echoes through the courtyard

"That's enough talk now get to it. I don't have the time or patience to sit here and listen to you trade insults."

Page sprints to me as fast as he can, he almost catches me off guard but luckily I'm no stranger to fighting, dad would wake me up and teach me to box every morning because he heard about some kid giving me a hard time at school. I've never had a hard time defending myself since. I side step Page and attempt to hit him in the back. He catches himself and swings the sparring staff, I wasn't expecting him to be able to do that. I block his swing and get some distance between us.

"Try again money bags." I say as I gesture for him to come to me "Wanna try again?"

He gets closer to me, this time he takes his time and doesn't charge right at me. I swing my staff aiming for his chest, he blocks it and sweeps my feet from underneath me. I try to stand right back up but he puts his staff to my chest to keep me down.

"How's that for trying Miller? What's the matter, daddy never teach you to watch your footing in a fight?" He says standing over me with a grin running across his face

I knock his staff back with mine and spring to me feet.

"My dad taught me the value knowing how your opponent thinks." I say as I try to circle around Page.

He swings his staff, I duck underneath it and move closer to him staying low. He tries to kick me in the face, I catch his leg with my arm wrapping it around and hit his other leg with my staff knocking him off balance.

Page stands back up and knocks me back. He jumps up and knees me square in the mouth which causes me to fall backward. Once I land he jumps on top of me and tries to keep me off my feet. His first punch gets caught but the second lands on my jaw. He punches me again and again until he gets careless and doesn't pay enough attention to my legs.

I manage to kick him in the back of the head and while he's dazed I throw him off of me. Once I'm back on my feet I throw the staff to the ground realizing it'll just hold me back. I spit the blood out of my mouth and wipe it out of my eyes. I bring my hands up and get into a boxing stance

"That the best you can do?!" I say as I spit more blood out of my mouth "Bring it on!" I yell

Page swings his staff, this time I catch it. I yank it towards me and punch him in his smug face. He doubles back and tries another swing, I duck down and uppercut him. When I stand back up he knees upward hoping to hit my midsection, I block it by connecting with a knee of my own which lands directly in his stomach. He kneels down holding his ribs

"You done?" I ask, not letting my guard down.

Page grabs his staff and starts swinging it wildly "Never!!" He screams as I either duck underneath or block each swing.

Eventually he tires out and swings again hoping to hit me. I catch it but right as I do he lands a kick to my leg causing me fall to a knee. Page swings his staff again, hitting right across my face sending me to the grassy pavement. He stands over me panting and clutching his ribs.

"Stay down Miller, and admit that I'm the better man!" He exclaims as he sees me trying to get back up

He kicks me in the stomach, I fall back down.

"Stay down!!" He screams again

I can't stay down, if I do...I'd be doing the one thing dad told me **never** to do in a fight. He always told me to get back up, no matter how hard I got hit. I have to fight through the pain, dad would. Page tries to kick me again, I catch his foot as I stand back up

"Not this time." I say as I throw his foot down and land one more clean punch to his face, knocking him out cold.

"No...you stay down." I say as I spit more blood on the ground.

Sergant Loomis walks up to me while I try to catch my breath

"I've seen plenty of spars in my time but...that was a doosey." He says as he extends his hand to help me up

"Thank you sir." I say as he helps me up

My sparring match with Page earned me a bit of a reputation. Loomis says that since I showed 'undying determination' he named me squad leader, much to Page's dismay, but since his opinion means about as much to me as wine does to a vorcha I'm taking it with stride.

This has been Chapter 1 of my first Mass Effect fan fiction. Thank you for reading and if you have any feedback or criticism or if you simply have questions about the direction I plan to take this story please don't hesitate to ask. I hope you'll be patiently waiting for chapter 2 as I am currently writing it. Again I want to thank you for reading and I hope your have a fantastic day.


	2. Chapter 2

Two years have passed since my days on Earth for basic training. A lot has happened since then. Shortly after basic and I was assigned to the SSV Manhattan. The Geth, a race of machines created by the Quarians attacked a colony called Eden Prime. They were under the order of a rogue Turian Spectre named Saren Arterius causing a galactic wide goose chase led by another Spectre. None other than Commander Shepard, not only the woman who fought to protect my family during the blitz when I was still just a kid. . .but the first human Spectre in history.

I'm walking along a pathway in a section of the Citadel called the Presidium when I hear something coming from underneath a pile of debris. I start searching for the source of the noise when ...

"Help … me" I hear a soft voice call out.

I start tossing the rubble aside,trying to get to who ever is calling out to me.

"Hey, hold on, I've almost got this cleared out!" I yell, hoping they can hear me. "Can I get some help here?! There's someone under here!" I yell to two C-Sec officers clearing rubble behind me.

They help me clear the rubble, until we find the face behind the voice calling out to us. We saw a woman buried underneath the rubble; she was an Asari, her natural blue skin was darkened by the debris and bruises were scattered across her face.

A pillar had fallen on top of her legs pinning her to the ground.

"Go get the doctor, I'm gonna try and pull this off of her," I say to one of the officers as he stands up.

He runs across the walkway yelling for a doctor.

The Asari looks frightened so I try to calm her down.

"Thank you," She says as tears stream down her face.

"Don't thank me yet, ma'am, you still have this pillar on top of you," I say as she looks at me.

I can tell that she is in pain. If she doesn't see a doctor soon ... she might not make it. I can't let that happen. She looks at me again and I start thinking, What would dad do?

I stand up and move toward the pillar.

"Okay ... I'm gonna try and get this off of you so I'm gonna need you to hold still and work with me. Think you can do that?" I ask her.

She nods so I take the pillar trying to get a good enough grip.

"I can't promise this'll feel great, so bear with me here. But I promise you this, you are not gonna die on my watch. Okay, I'm gonna start lifting this thing off of you. Ready?" I ask.

She reluctantly nods. I pull on the pillar as hard as I can trying to get it off. It's a lot heavier than it looks. I can't quit ... I promised her I'd help her and keep her alive. Dad always taught me that a man is only as good as his word and my word is one of the only things I have left. I lift again, pulling as hard as I can. With one more pull I manage to lift the pillar off her legs and move it away from her.

"Okay ... I'm gonna get you to the Med center. Think you can handle that? I ask hoping I have enough time to get her there.

"I think so," she says weakly.

I pick her up, trying to keep pressure off of her legs and run to the nearest clinic. I see her out of the corner of my eye, she's fading fast ... I need to move faster. I pick up the pace and begin sprinting. The closest Med center is on the other side of the Presidium so I have to get there as soon as possible. I sprint past countless piles of rubble and dead Geth, I pass the giant Krogan statue in the middle of the lake. I looked down to her, she's clutching at my uniform trying to stay awake.

"Don't worry, we're almost there!" I say, trying to reassure her "Don't sleep on me yet!"

I see the Med center near the elevator to the Wards and run through the door.

"Help, she needs a doctor!" I yell.

A Salarian doctor runs up to me with a gurnie.

"Lay her down on this, be sure to do it slowly," he says.

Salarians are one of the smartest known species in the galaxy, Salarian doctors are known for their brilliance. She'll be in good hands. As I begin to turn around to walk out, the Asari grabs my hand.

"Wait!" she says weakly "I don't even know your name."

I clutch her hand.

"Ethan, Ethan Miller," I say

I fill out all the required paperwork and begin head back toward the walkway where I found the Asari woman.

"Miller, its Page." I hear over comms.

"What's the problem?" I ask.

"Captain Michaelson wants everyone to report back the ship. Hacketts ordering all Alliance ships to Earth."

"On my way and tell Beck that if he touches anything on my bunk before I get there I'll tell Montoya about his little adventure to Chora's den while she was on leave," I say as I'm making my way to the ship.

"What's the matter? Afraid he'll find your stash of Asari porn?" Page asked.

I can almost hear the smug grin going across his face.

"Just for that, smart-ass, you can help James mop the latrine," I say grinning.

Page sighed over the comms. "I hate you," he says

"I hate you," I say slyly.

"Sir," Page says with the audible gritting of his teeth.

"That's better," I tell him laughing.

I get to the Manhattan where I'm greeted by James saluting me as I walk up the ramp.

"Chief Miller, good to see you back sir," he says.

After basic finished and I was named squad leader I was given the rank of Service Chief. I've led a few ground missions but nothing major. I've been on shore leave for the past ;2 weeks and after I visited my mother for a few days I decided to visit the Citadel since I've never been. It was all well and good, until I was sitting in a restaurant enjoying lunch when I heard gunshots and screaming to find out that the Geth were attacking the station. This is the first time I've seen the Manhattan since then.

"James how many times have I told you? No need to salute me. I'm your Service Chief yes, but I'm still your friend." I say "And drop the 'sir' alright? Miller is fine."

He lowers his hand and rubs the back of his neck "Sorry s- Miller." he says "How was your shore leave?"

"Well it was fine until I started getting shot at." I say walking around the hanger getting a feel for the ship again.

"Miller, good to see that Turian prick didn't kill you too.,"

Thomas says walking toward James and I.

"Still can't believe we lost so many saving those scaley bastards."

"Thomas ... nice to see you still have that charming bit of racism I missed so much," I say rolling my eyes.

"I hear Page is cleaning the shitter with James," he says

"How'd you know?" I ask.

James and Thomas both start laughing.

"He tried to bribe Thomas into doing it," James says.

"Typical." I say.

"Attention crew, Captain Michaelson wants everyone to meet in the CIC for debrief." Beck says over the ship wide intercom.

Flight Lt Robert Beckett or 'Beck' as a lot of us like to call him is the Manhattan's pilot; one of the best pilots the Alliance has to offer. He has his moments when you want to strangle him but he's good at his job and isn't that bad once you get to know him so I don't pay him any mind.

Thomas, James, Page and I meet up with some other members of the crew and head towards the CIC.

"So I heard you tried to bribe Thomas into mopping the latrine with James," I say to Page.

"He's full of shit, you can't buy into his crap," Page says as we walk.

"Well if you feel like that you can help James for the rest of the week," I say with a smile.

"Do you enjoy hurting me?" Page asked.

"A little," I say as we walk toward the C.I.C.

"Why did you have to comeback?" Page asks.

"You know you'd miss me," I say.

"Well regardless ... I'm glad you did. This place would've been boring without you," Page says.

Page has luckily changed his tune as well as his attitude since basic. He's still an asshole but at least now he isn't as bad.

We walk up to the C.I.C where Captain Michaelson is standing at the Galaxy map.

"Nice to see all of you," he says.

The Manhattan has been under the command of Captain Michaelson ever since the First Contact war. This ship belongs to him as much as it does to the Alliance. We all salute the Captain in unison.

"At ease," He says.

Captain Michaelson has that presence about him that just commands respect. But at the same time, you know that if you have a problem he will find a way to help you.

"Today we finally pushed back the Geth and with the help of Humanity and The Systems Alliance Navy, the council is alive and well. I am proud to say that the SSV Manhattan and her crew took part in today's events. It did not however, come without cost, we lost seven ships as well as twenty Turian cruisers. We will always remember their sacrifice and honor them accordingly." he says

I wasn't on the ship during the battle, I was still on the station helping C-Sec with the civilians caught in the crossfire. Michaelson began speaking again and we all listen.

"There is however, something that was brought to my attention. There was a member of this crew who acted with not only courage but resilience and determination. Protecting those who could not protect themselves. I wanted to personally commemorate this crew member for his actions," he says as he's looking amongst the members of the crew.

I don't know who he could be talking about. I wasn't even on the ship so it can't be me. If i had to guess as to who, I'd say Beck. It was his piloting that helped us the most during the battle.

"I want everyone to look at the vid screen so you can see exactly what I'm talking about," Michaelson says as it starts playing.

It shows footage of a firefight on the station. Swarms of Geth were assaulting this merchant shop with civilians inside. The Geth were slaughtering C-Sec officers one after the other until only one of them was left alongside an Alliance marine ... wait.

The officer ran inside the shop and started leading civilians away from the Geth through the back entrance into a service tunnel. The marine stayed behind and held the Geth off to buy time. He held them off as long as he could until eventually a wave of red energy washes over the station and the Geth all collapse at once.

The marine stands back up and the camera zooms in on his face. It was me.

Michaelson luckily broke the silence, "Service Chief Miller, step up here," he says.

I'm not sure what to do so I end up standing completely still. Captain Michaelson looks at me.

"Well, son, are you going to walk over here or stand there dumbfounded?" He asks.

I shake my head and begin walking toward the Captain, once I get close he places a hand on my shoulder and begins talking, "Chief Miller for your heroism and grace under pressure I am recommending you for a promotion when we arrive on Earth," he says never taking his eyes off of me.

A promotion? I only did what anyone would've done in the same situation. I don't deserve this kind of praise, I haven't even had an opportunity to lead a proper mission with my team. I haven't proven myself capable enough yet.

I look at the Captain. "Sir, permission to speak freely?" I ask

He nods and says, "Granted, say what's on your mind."

Okay Ethan, just breathe, and say what you mean I begin, I'm thinking to myself before speaking up.

"Captain, I don't believe I deserve this promotion. I only did what any other self respecting marine would've done. No-one gets left behind, that's how the Alliance has always operated, sir and I only followed that code," I said

Michaelson furrows his brow.

"Well, if that's how you feel I can understand. Crew, dismissed. Beckett, plot a course for Earth," he says.

He began walking and stops to look at me.

"Miller, I'd like to speak to you in private," he says walking toward his cabin.

I follow closely behind him.

Did I say something to upset him? Am I about to get scolded?

Thoughts like that begin popping up and running through my head as we get closer and closer to his cabin.

Every step feels like a mile as an overwhelming sense of dread washes over me.

Michaelson opens the door to his cabin and escorts me inside, he looks at me and notices that I'm visually worried about what he might say.

"Don't worry, son I didn't ask to speak so I could yell at you," he reassures me.

He walks over to his desk, grabs a datapad and hands it to me.

I take it and I see a picture taken from before First Contact. There was a man standing next to one of the first models of an Alliance cruiser. At first I didn't know who it was but the more I looked at it … it was Captain Michaelson.

"That was taken almost 25 years ago. I was just promoted and I felt exactly the same as you do now. I didn't feel like I deserved it, I felt like it was being handed to me with no explanation other than 'You're a good kid'. I'm not going to give the whole 'you remind me of myself when I was your age' speech so don't worry," he says as he takes the datapad and places it back on his desk.

He asks me to sit down, I do.

"Listen, son, I know you may feel like you don't deserve this, but believe me when I say that you do. You say that any self respecting marine would do the same had they been in your shoes. Thats not true, only a select few would've stayed and fought like you did. Even less would've lived to talk about it. Most would've just turned and ran without even thinking of those civilians. What was going through your mind when you saw those C-Sec officers get gunned down one by one? What caused you to stay behind?"

His words hit me like a punch in the gut.

Not because they weren't true, but because I didn't have answer for him. The only thing that was going through my mind were those people. All I wanted was to get them out alive, so they could see their families again. So their children wouldn't have to go through the same pain I did. I knew that if I didn't do something that's exactly what would've happened.

I just wish those C-Sec officers didn't have to die, seeing them fall one after the other ... it's gonna stay with me for the rest of my life. That was my first real firefight, it was the single most terrifying experience of my life. To be honest, I'm surprised I didn't end up dead. I may be a trained marine but they were just cops. They were trained to stop robberies and drug dealers, not Geth.

As I'm about to speak Captain Michaelson stops me, "I know what you're thinking, I can see it on your face. You were thinking about their families, weren't you?" he asks.

"You were thinking about how their families would feel without them."

He walks over to his terminal and pulls something up on the screen. He asks me to look at what's on it.

I see names and faces scrolling down on the screen.

Michaelson turns around and gives me the same look my dad would give me before a lecture.

"These are all the people that you helped get back to their families. They wouldn't be alive if you hadn't done what you did."

He turns back to his terminal and pulls up the recommendation for my promotion.

"Think about what I said. If by the time we reach Earth you still feel the same, I will repeal my recommendation," he says as he walks me to the door.

"I will, sir. Thank you," I say as I walk toward the crew quarters.

I have a lot to think about until we reach Earth, so I decide to head to my bunk and get some rest.

As I'm walking I over hear a conversation in the latrine. It sounds like James and Page are finishing up with their cleaning duties.

I keep walking but I hear something crash coming from stalls and I rush back towards it.

"Calm down, dammit!" I hear James yell.

"What is your problem?!"

"You wanna know what my problem is, James? Do you really wanna know?!" Page yells back.

"My problem is that Miller had a golden opportunity to move up the ranks from the Captain and he rejected it!"James starts screaming back at Page.

"It's not your decision to make! If he feels he doesn't deserve it then it's our job as his squad to stand by his choice. It's what we do!"

I hear what sounds like someone punching the wall.

"Fuck!" I hear Page scream.

"Why is this such a big deal to you?" James yells back.

"He has to take it ... he just has to," Page says dodging the question.

He doesn't get it. Hes acting like I took the offer and spat it back in Michaelson's face. He thinks I'm taking it for granted. He has no idea what he's talking about

I pass by some other members of the crew on my way to my bunk who all give me a respectful look. I enter the crew quarters to find Thomas playing poker with some other crew members. He stops and stands up.

"I fold," he says as he stands up and walks toward me.

"So? How'd it go? Did you take the promotion?"

He starts bombarding me with questions as soon as I walk in. I look back at him and sit down at my bunk.

"Michaelson gave me until we get to Earth to make a decision. So I have about two days to think on it," I say putting my head in my hands.

"Think on what?" Page asks as he and James walk in.

James jumps up on his bunk above mine and Page sits at his bunk right across from me. I look back up at Page, he is obviously upset and his hand is red and swollen.

"On whether or not I get promoted," I say, trying not to look at his hand.

Page looks at me with obvious anger in his eyes.

"Why do you even have to think about it? Why don't you just take it?" he asks as he stands back up. "Why is it so hard for you to believe that this is an easy decision?"

"Page, calm down and let the guy think. He already has enough to think about without you screaming in his ear," Thomas says.

I don't see a way out of this conversation unless Page is satisfied with an answer, so reluctantly I start to give him one.

"I … I just don't think I deserve it," I say knowing that Page isn't gonna be satisfied with anything but the truth.

"Bullshit, you're throwing away the perfect opportunity to move up in the ranks for what? You think Michaelson would've recommended you for a promotion if you didn't deserve it?" he says, scowling at me.

"We all know that your reasons for not taking it are ridiculous, now tell us why," he says

I can't take this anymore so I stand up to walk out, but Page puts his hand out to stop me.

"Let me through Page," I say in a dulcet tone.

He shakes his head and stands in front of me moving me further away from the door.

"Move ... that's an order," I say again gritting my teeth

He shakes his head again. "That's an order I can't follow."

I try to step past him but he stops me.

"Page if you don't move I'll-" I say.

Page looks me dead in the eyes and asks, "Will you at least hear me out?"

I suppose there's no way out of this other than hearing what he has to say.

"Fine. But I doubt I'll change my mind," I say.

Page sits across from me and starts speaking.

"I'm gonna level with you Miller. I respect you, even though you piss me off,"

He says with a slight smile.

"You're the only person I know other than maybe James who could beat me one-on-one. You're a good leader and a hell of a Marine, that vid proved all the things that we've been thinking since basic."

His voice takes a more serious tone.

"I'm sure Michaelson said it to you already about those people being alive because of you, but it's true. I can only think of maybe two people on this ship who would've done the same thing; You and Michaelson, I know that if your dad could see you right now he'd be proud to call you his son."

Images of my dad start going through my mind, his accomplishments in the Alliance. He received multiple honors throughout his career for outstanding service and heroism. I start thinking about what he would do had he been there instead of me.

I look down and Page speaks up, "I know it's hard to hear, just think about what I said. Okay?" he says looking at me.

I nod and then Thomas chimes in.

"It's not like you aren't a special case already," He says.

I look up at him a bit puzzled.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"You're the only person I've seen to make it all the way to Service Chief in less than 5 years. You think everyone gets to your level that quick?" he says, giggling. "The rate you're going I wouldn't be surprised if you hit Commander soon."

I haven't thought of that before. It hasn't been that long since I enlisted and there aren't a lot of people on the Manhattan above me in terms of rank.

As I think about it more Page stands up. "I need to have my hand checked out." He mutters as he walks out.

As he walks out of the room, James hops down from his bunk.

"I'm gonna hit the mess. You hungry?" he says, obviously trying to change the subject.

I shake my head and he leaves as well. Thomas goes back to playing poker with the other crew members and I lay down on my bunk and think on my decision. Everything they said was true, I'm younger than all the Service Chiefs on this ship. I don't doubt that I saved those people, I doubt that it's worth promoting me over it.

I slowly close my eyes until I feel a hand on my shoulder shaking me awake. I open my eyes and I see one of the crew members standing next to my bunk. He stands at attention.

"Sir, you have a call coming in from Elysium," he says.

"Thank you, I'll take it here," I say, trying to wake myself up.

He leaves the barracks and I walk over to the vid screen. I answer the call to see my mom on the other side. I smile and stand up straight.

"Hi, sweetie!" she says. Her long black hair is tied into a ponytail and she's wearing her favorite purple dress.

"Hey, mom, how have you been? You look great," I say, still smiling like and idiot

"News just came back about what happened at the Citadel and I wanted to make sure you were okay. They named off all the ships we lost and I hoped and prayed I wouldn't hear yours." She starts wiping tears from her eyes. "Once I found out your ship was fine I hurried home to see if you were okay. I didn't know if calling would get you in trouble or not but I spoke with Ronald and he said it was fine," She says.

"Ronald, you mean the Captain?" I ask.

How does she know his first name? As far as I know they haven't met. Maybe he told her? I don't know.

She nods. "Yes, he and your father served together during first contact. He didn't tell you?"

I shake my head. "No, he didn't."

She gets a puzzled look on her face. "Well, I'm sure he has his reasons. He's a lot like your father." She smiles and gives me a look I've seen so many times. "Ethan, I know something's bothering you. You can tell me."

"How'd you know?" I ask her.

"Ethan, I'm your mother, you think I don't know when something is bothering you?" she asks crossing her arms. "Now spill it."

I feel like I'm a kid again with how she is scolding me. No matter how old I get she'll still see me as her 'baby boy'.

I tell her everything. From me getting into a firefight on the Presidium to Captain Michaelson wanting to promote me.

She nods at me and smiles again. "What's the problem?" she asks

"What do you mean?" I ask her, not knowing what she means.

"Ethan you saved those people. You know that, I know that. Ronald knows that otherwise he wouldn't want to promote you. You deserve this promotion." She looks at me through the screen. "I know that if he were here, your father would tell you the same thing."

"I know mom … I know. I miss him," I say looking down.

She nods and says, "Me too sweety, me too. I have to get back to work. Think about what I said Ethan. Okay?"

"I will, I love you mom." I say

She smiles and says, "I love you too sweetie."

After I end the call I head to the mess hall to get some food. The food in the mess hall isn't exactly what I'd call gourmet but its still better than starving. I sit down after getting my tray and notice most of the crew in there are glancing at me.

What the hell do they know? They weren't there, they don't know what happened. I think to myself as pretend to finish eating.

After I finish eating I stand up aggressively making it obvious that I knew what they were talking about. I don't get much sleep, I can't help but think about what everyone said to me yesterday. I don't doubt that I had a part to play in saving them, but I do doubt that I did it single handedly.

As I wake up early the next morning I try my hardest not think about what happened in the mess hall the day before and begin my normal routine. Cardio in the rec room then shower and get breakfast. The day goes on normal enough with Thomas and I spending most of the day in the armory checking weapons and performing basic maintenece.

One thought kept popping up in the back of my mind though. Why didn't Captain Michaelson tell me he knew my father? That thought kept sitting in the back of my mind so later on in the day around the evening I went to speak to the Captain.

I knock on the door to his quarters and I hear him call me in from the other side.

He turns around to see me standing at attention in his doorway.

"Sir," I say

"What is it, Chief? Have you come to a decision yet?" he asks

I shake my head. "Not yet sir, I was wondering if I could ask you a question."

"Ask away," he says

"Why didn't you tell me you knew my father?" I ask getting straight to the point.

He stands up. "I wasn't aware I had to. To the best of my knowledge who I know doesn't concern you." He sets a datapad on his desk and grabs another picture fram off of his desk and hands it to me smiling.

"Don't worry, I know that's not how you meant it. I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to think I wanted to recommend your promotion based solely on the fact that your father and I were friends."

He hands me the picture frame. It was taken during my fathers last deployment before I was born. Captain Michaelson and my father were standing next to each other in a hanger. Seeing my dad smile like that in this picture brought back a lot memories from my childhood.

"Blake was always talking about how he couldn't wait to meet you. He was always talking about the man he wanted you to be. The man you would become. He always had it in his head that you would do great things." he says putting a hand on my shoulder.

Captain Michaelson takes the picture and puts it on his desk

He smiles at me and says, "Seems he was right."

I look back down at the picture.

"Sir, I've made my decision," I say, determined to make what my father said true.

"What is it?" He asks.

"Do you still have my recommendation on your terminal?" I ask.

He nods and pulls it up.

"Send it," I say smiling

He sends it through.

"Congratulations, Gunnery Chief."

This has been Chapter two of Mass Effect: Purification. This was one the harder projects I've undertaken and after 6 re-writes and countless times I felt lost I can honestly say that I am happy with how this chapter ended. I apologise for how long it took but I didn't want to rush it and give you all a half-assed story. I wanted to give you something that not only you will (hopefully) enjoy reading, but I will be happy with the outcome. I hope you enjoy this chapter and I will attempt to get chapter three out a lot sooner rather than later. Thanks for reading and feel free to give feedback


	3. chapter 3

"Any idea when the new Lieutenant is gonna get here?" Thomas asks, cleaning his gun. I can hear him getting impatient from across the shuttle bay, he's been like this since we found out we'd be getting a new CO. "I'm getting tired of waiting."

It's been almost a year since the attack on the Citadel, since then we've gotten some new additions to our team; a few new squad members to come along with our new Lieutenant. I've gotten to know our new squad members well enough at this point, first there's Tonya Sullivan, but we've taken to calling her 'Sully', she grew up on Earth, she's green, but she learns fast. Then there's Leonard Davis, he's almost to smart for his own good. From what I hear, our new Lieutenant is fresh out of officer training. _Hopefully Tang can teach the Lt, I already have my hands full with Sully and Davis._

"What's the matter Thomas? You that exited to meet our new boss?" Sully asks, setting a crate of parts, slight monocroms of humor echoing in her voice.

"Careful Sully, I'm not Miller, I won't hesitate to teach you some manners the hard way," Thomas mutters, giving her a shifty look. "If you know what I mean." A sly smile forms on his face.

Sully leans against the workbench, runs her fingers along Thomas' arm. "I might have to take you up on that offer," She says slyly as she leans down closer to him, "But I'd rather not have the image waking up next to you in my head." She walks away laughing and carrying more parts from the workbench.

Laughing, I walk over to Thomas and try to salvage whatever shame he has left. "Think of it this way Thomas, now I don't have to repremand you for going against regs," I pat him on the shoulder stifling back laughter and wiping tears forming in my eyes. "The Lt should be here today, heard so from Tang".

A loud voice booms from the elevator. "Jericho, front and center!" Operations Chief Wei Tang marches into the shuttle bay alongside another man I've never seen before. _He must be our bew CO._ They call us Jericho squad, when Michaelson wants something done quick, and efficiently, he calls us."Miller, round 'em up!" He gestures me foward with that commanding tone he's known for and stands in the middle of the shuttle bay with the other man.

"You heard him, form up!" I yell as Jericho lines up single file in front of Tang. I line up next to Davis and stand at attention.

Tang Steps foward and eyes us all up, he gestures to the man behind him. "This is Lt Winston, our new CO. He's fresh out of officer training but I've given him the rundown of how we do things in Jericho." he steps aside and lets Lt Winston step foward.

Just looking at Winston you could tell just how green he was, fresh haircut and a clean shave with a brand new set of officer's bars on his dry cleaned uniform. "As the Operations Chief said, I'll be taking over Jericho as your new Commanding officer," _Even his voice sounds brand new. "_ I'm looking foward to working with each of you, but I want to make one thing abundently clear; This is my first time leading a team, and I may be 'green', as I've heard it called, but that doesn't mean I don't know how to affectivley do my job, and keep you all safe."

Lt Winston dismisses us, but he and Tang pull me aside to the back corner of the shuttle bay. Tang leans against the wall while Winston stands next to him.

"Apologies for disrupting your duties Gunnery Chief, but I wanted to meet my other NCO," his almost synthetic tone of voice grinds against my ear like nails on a chalk board. "I hear you were on the Citadel during the battle with the Geth."

I nod, "Yes sir, I was." I'll remember everything about that day for the rest of my life, my first real firefight, and if it wasn't for the Normandy destroying that massive Geth ship it would've been my last.

Tang laughs, "Don't act so formal, Miller," he looks at me, and then at Winston. "Miller is the one who stopped the Geth from getting to a large number of civvies on his own."

 _But I didn't do it on my own, good cops died helping me._ Winston raises an eyebrow with an obvious look of surprisement on his face, "Really? I wasn't aware of that." _Why do I feel like he's patronising me?_ Winston drones on and on, giving me an entire speech about team work and the 'value of good leadership.' _What the hell do you know about teamwork? You've never had to work as a team with anyone before._ His patronising tone, and his 'holier than thou' attitude cause me to grit my teeth, right as I'm about to say something ...

"Lt Winston, report to the CIC immedietly." Beck calls in over the ship's intercom. _Thank God._

Tang and I walk back to the weapon workbech where Thomas is cleaning his gun, the others are standing around him in a circle. "Self-entitled prick," I can hear Page mutter under his breath. _Oh the irony._

"OC, what's your take on the Lt?" Davis asks as Tang and I walk up. "Off the record." It sounds like Davis and the others have been chatting about our new CO.

Tang shakes his head, "Well as his second it's my job to support his decisions, since he's my commanding officer," He leans foward and starts whispering. "But since its off the record, he's got a stick so far up his ass you'd think he was a puppet." Everyone starts snickering, and chatting for a few minutes before Tang walks off and heads to the elevator. Before he gets inside, the door opens and Winston steps out.

"Jericho, form up!" he says in a commanding tone as he walks toward the workbench. "I just left a meeting with the Captain," he hands a datapad to Tang as he walks back to us. "We just recieved word that an unknown vessel was spotted just inside Alliance space headed towards Earth." Tang hands the datapad to me, it says that the ship was also spotted leaving Omega before plotting it's course towards Earth.

I set the datapad on the workbench. Page grabs it and looks it over, his brow furrowing the more he reads it. "Why does one ship heading to Earth matter so much sir?" He grimices toward Winston as he sets the datapad back on the workbech.

Winston grabs the datapad and pulls up a camera feed taken from Omega. The camera zooms in, and on the side of the ship it reads ... SSV Ticonderoga. "That's why Corporal, the Ticonderoga was deemed MIA three years ago, since it was not only found but spotted leaving an area that was deemed and enemy of the Alliance, it's our job to find out who has taken control of the ship and, if possible, bring her back for a proper decomission." He spouts with eagerness in his voice, understandable seeing as this is his first mission, and he's in charge. "Suit up Jericho, I want everyone ready and on the shutle before we get there."

As I'm strapping my chest and back plate together I can hear Sully and Davis talking behind me. "Ready Davis?" Sully eagerly asks, she's basically jumping with exitement. "I sure as hell am!"

Davis is standing next to her, he clearly isn't as exited as Sully, taking his time suiting up while Sully and the rest of us are already suited and ready to go. "Yeah, I guess." Obvious hesitation in his voice. I walk up behind the two of them.

"You okay Davis?" I ask, worried.

"You seem nervous." _It's obvious that he's scared out of his mind, hopefully I can say something to calm him down so he doesn't do anything to get himself, or any of us killed._

"I'm fine Gunny, just a little nervous is all," He says trying to hide the fact that his hands are shaking.

"Davis, it's fine if you're scared, but don't let that get in the way of doing your job," I say, sighing. "Remember, even if things go south, you're not alone. Don't be afraid to lean on your squad, we'll be there for you, just be sure that you can be there for us when the time comes," I put my hand on his shoulder smiling. "Remember what I taught you and you'll be fine."

Sully playfully punches my arm. "See Davis, Gunny's got your back," she lifts his head up. "And so do I."

Davis smiles and gives one nod. "I got your back too, thanks Gunny."

"No need to thank me, just make sure you come back, then you can thank me."

"Jericho, in the shuttle. We're here," Winston's voice echoes around us as we pile in the shuttle. "Beckett managed to get a long range scan of the Ticonderoga, there are people on board, but they aren't responding to any of our attempts to make contact."

"What does that mean sir?" Thomas asks, poking his head out from behind James.

"Proceed with caution, Private." Those words echoed throughout the shuttle, hitting us all like grenades.

I look at Davis, putting my hand on his shoulder to reassure him on what I told him before we got on the shuttle.

"SSV Ticonderoga, this is Lt Winston of the SSV Manhatton, we are attempting to dock inside your hangar bay, please respond," His attempt to make contact, like all the others, is met with silence. "Dammit, okay, once that door opens be ready for anything, no telling what we're gonna run into."

The shuttle doors open and, Page, James, Thomas, and I move to one side of the massive room while, Winston, Tang, Davis, and Sully move to the other side. _Empty, you'd think with a ship this size, plus the scans, that there'd be at least one person here to greet us._ I don't like this.

Winston rallies us all to the center of the hangar and comes up with a plan. "Okay, Tang, I need you to take Davis and find the server room, we need eyes and ears across this ship."

Tang stands up and motions Davis toward him. "Alright Davis, stay behind me, and keep your damn head down incase shit hits the fan." Davis follows close behind as he and Tang go through a door on the east end of the hangar.

"What about us sir?" I ask, not wanting to let Tang, and Davis do all the work. "We can't sit here and do nothing." Winston motions us to a doorway near the front of the hangar.

"I have no intention of letting them Gunnery Chief, we are going to see if we can make it to the bridge, and see who's been piloting this ship," His voice doesn't have the same patronising tone as before, it almost sounds ... determined. "Check your corners and keep it tight."

We clear rooms all throughout the ship on our way to the hanger, I take point with, Winston behind me, followed by Sully, with James behind her, and Page bringing up the rear. We enter the messhall and we get to the other side of the room when Tang's voice comes in on comms. "Lt, Tang here, we reached the server room. No resistance on the way here and the room is clear," Surprise resounds throughout his voice. "Davis is bringing up the camera feed now."

"That's what I like to hear," Winston starts to pull up his omni-tool. "What am I looking at here Tang?" He asks, his once determined tone now a sounding dulcet, and almost scared. Tang yells something to Winston I couldn't hear and then ...

Heat, flashes across the messhall, hitting us all with enough force to send us crashing to the floor. The ringing in my ears made it clear that it was a grenade. I lift my head up to see the door to the messhall wide open with three men funneling in with weapons in hand, scrambling, I reach for my rifle, and take one out with a bullet in his neck. I stand up to take another shot, but one of the other men tackles me to the ground, he grabs my gun and tosses it across to the other side of the room. I take my omni-blade and stab him in the neck, using him as a shield as the third man fires his gun at me. I wait until I hear his gun overheat before rolling the body off of me to charge at the last man. Before I can get to him, I notice that he's already dead, Page yanks his omni-blade out of the man's back and shoves his body to the ground. "You okay?" He asks, retracting the red hot blade back into his omni-tool.

I nod, and go to pick up my gun. "Anyone alive? Holler if you're dead." A slight smile forming across my face, staring death in the face, and coming out alive tends to have that affect. "Lt Winston?" I look around for him. "Sir?" I turn to see Thomas kneeling next to James, and Sully. "Where is he?!" Desperation setting in now, I stomp over to the other and see what they're kneeling over ... _Fuck._

I see the mangled body of what was once Lt Winston, his left arm completley blown off, and his face ... if it wasn't for the Alliance crest on his armor I wouldn't even know it was him. _I think I'm gonna be sick._ I turn around and take off my helmet to get some cool air on my face. Thomas takes off his helmet. "Well now what?" Clearly pissed off, his voice a mixture of both anger, and desperation. He runs his hand through his hair and sits in one of the chairs that was still in good condition. "This is a shit show, our 'fearless leader' gets blown up on his first fucking mission, we have no idea who or what these assholes are, and to top it all off, I'm pretty sure our shuttle is fucked now. Who knows what these fucks have done to it since we left the hangar."

"Calm down Thomas, the last thing we need is to lose our cool," James stands up and tries to calm Thomas down. "We just have to figure out who these guys are, and we can just go from there." James, always the voice of reason, those soft tones could calm a ferral vorcha.

"James is right Thomas, we just ne-. What's that beeping?" Sully looks down at her feet after stepping over one of bodies. Flashing red lights are spread across one of their chests.

"Bomb!" James screams as he shoves Sully away from it and jumps on top of it.

"James!" I yell as the shockwave of the explosion sends us all tumbling across the room.

Heat washes across my bare face, singeing the stubble growing on my chin. I slowly make my way back to my feet, before scrambling toward what was left of my friend, there wasn't anything recognisable about him. His remains scattered across the messhall. _Goddammit, James ... I'm so sorry. I'll make sure none of these bastards make it off of this ship alive._ Kneeling, I make that silent promise to my friend. Page and Thomas manage to get back to their feet helping Sully get to hers.

Sully, visibly shaken, kneels down next to what's left of James. "It's my fault, if I hadn't triggered those grenades ... "

I make my way over to her and kneel down next to her. "No, it's not your fault. It's their fault," I point to the body of one the men who charged us. "They killed James, and the Lt. Not you, now make sure they didn't die for nothing."

I stand up, grab her gun, and hand it to her. She nods and grabs it. I look at Thomas, and Page, they each nod. Page tosses me my rifle. "What's the plan ... sir?" He grabs his own weapon and cracks his knuckles

"First, we need to reestablish contact with Tang, and Davis," I put my helmet back on, and place my finger on the comms reciever "Tang, it's Miller, you copy? Come on, Tang I could really use some good news."

"Miller?! Thank Christ, after the comms went out we thought you were done for,"

Tang's voice came through the comms, his voice sounded like a gift from God himself after what we just went through. "What's your situation? Where's Winston?"

And now the hard part, "He ... he, and James didn't make it. How are things on your end?" My voice cracking as I say it.

"Dammit ... I was hoping to see them again before ... before I," I can hear coughing coming from the other end. _Oh shit, no_

"Tang, Tang you okay?" I know he isn't, but I need to hear him say it. "Where's Davis? Is he ...?"

"Dead, bastards got the drop on us," I can hear more coughing, sounds like he's coughing up blood. "I can hear more of them coming, I'll have a little surprise waiting for them, parting gift from yours truely." He lets out a subtle laugh. His raspy, blood curdled voice echoes through our comms units.

"Tang, where are you? we can come get you ... we can-" The sound of boots hitting the ground over comms cuts me off.

"I'm done for, Miller. You know that, I know that, these bastards definitely know that," Pain resounding in his voice, not fear, just anger. "Jericho needs someone to get them home, now that's your job. This is your team now, get it done." Comms cut out after that, and judging by the explosion we all heard, I think it's safe to say that he took as many as he could with him.

Thomas knocks a chair over. "Fuck!"

He throws his gun to the ground. "That's it, we're fucked!"

Page walks over and gets in his face. "Thomas, pull yourself together, we need you right now, and this isn't helping," Page mutters in an attempt to calm him down. "We knew what we signed up for when we enlisted. Now get it together."

Thomas clenches his fist, he begins gritting his teeth. "I didn't sign up for this!"

"You think I did? You think any of us did?" I turn around and walk toward him. "Because I didn't, but we're the only thing standing between these assholes, and Earth." I walk toward Thomas, and Page. I grab the chair, and set it back upright, I look at the two of them. "Look at that Thomas," I point to the pile of bodies behind them. "Unless we do something, that will happen to Earth. I don't know about you, but I'm not letting that happen without a fight. We lost half our team getting to this point, I don't intend on letting them die for nothing. I won't lie to you, the odds are stacked against us, and it's likely that none of us will make it out of here alive. But no-one else will be able to stop this ship in time."

I walk towards the door. "You have two choices; Help me, and die on your feet, or stay here, and pray to whatever God you believe in." As I'm walking I hear footsteps behind me, I turn around to see Page, Thomas, and Sully walking behind me, rifles in hand and determined looks spread across their faces. "Good, first things first, if we're gonna stop this ship, we need to hit the engine."

Page pulls up a map of the ship on his omni-tool. _T_ _hank you Davis_. "This way!" He exclaims as he leads us down a corridor headed to the lower level of the ship. We turn a corner running into more of those mercs, taking cover behind a nearby storage crate, I grab a grenade from my belt and throw it into the group of them. When they all scattered, running away from the blast, Sully, and Thomas would pick them off.

More mercs come pouring out of the adjacent rooms, close quarters combat isn't really that much of a hinderance, but that doesn't make it any easier. After fighting through countless waves of mercs, and after a lot of close calls, we make it to the engine room.

"Page, get on that catwalk and give us some overwatch," Page climbs up the ladder and watches us from up above. "Sully, see what you can do about the engine." She gives me a nod and rushes toward the console next to the engine while Thomas and I cover the door behind us.

Sully begins typing away at the console, after a few minutes she gestures for me to go to the console "Miller, we have a problem," The console is flashing red.

"That doesn't look good, what's it say?" I ask hesitantly, walking toward her.

"I don't know, I think the engine's be-" fire plooms over the console as the familiar combination of heat, and force pushes me back, and slamming me against a wall. I look up ... dazed, to see Sully panicking, trying to put out the fire that's enveloped her, slowly consuming every part of her body. "Su-lly I reach my hand out, my head feels heavy, to heavy for me keep up. I can feel my eyes drooping. _I should be fine, if I just, rest my eyes for a bit ... Right?_

"Miller!" A voice calls out to me, rushed, angry, scared. Gunshots, coming from all around me. "Miller!" The same voice calls out again. My eyes get strained as I open them, the heat from the fire, the sounds of yelling, and gunshots.

I look up, I see Thomas rush one of the mercs pouring into the room, one shot echoes throughout the engine room, and I see Thomas fall face first onto the ground. _I have to stand up. Get up Ethan, get up._ My left leg buckles under the preassure of my body weight. I look down at it to see my shin, shifted to one side. _Shit, it's broken._ I frantically look for my gun, only to hear a deep, threatening voice call out to me.

"Looking for this, soldier boy?" I look up to the voice and see a one of the mercs standing over me with my gun under his boot. I crawl toward it, but before I can get close enough to get a grip on it and end his miserable life, he kicks it away, and waggles his finger in my face. "Ah, ah, ah, can't have you getting your gun just ... yet!" I feel the weight of his boot across my face. "We need to have a little fun first." He grimmaces menacingly as he gestures for the other mercs to proceed to decorate my body with boot prints.

"Miller!" I hear a familiar voice call out from above me, on the catwalk. _Page_. Gunfire rains down on the mercs around me, and I can hear them fall one by one. "Hold on!" He yells as he jumps down from the catwalk. "Ships gonna go up any minute! We gotta get out of here!" he folds his rifle on his back. "Can you walk?"

I shake my head. "My legs broken, just go! Get out of here!" Page proceeds wrap my arm around his shoulder and lifts me off the ground. "What did I say dammit?! Get the fuck out of here, leave me!"

"Shut up and grab my pistol," He supports my weight and carries me out of the room. I reach for his pistol and take out any mercs that try to stop us. "Map says that the escape pods are just down here, we're almost out!" Page exclaims with exitement in his voice.

"What about the shuttle?" I ask as he carries me toward the escape pods.

"We won't make it in time, escape pods are our best shot." He says, shifting his gaze between the corridor in front of us, and the map on his omni-tool.

We make it to the escape pods but ...

"No, no no no no no, there can't be only one," Page says, the previous exitement replaced by fear.

"Get in the pod, Page," I say, in a dulcet tone. "Only one of us can fit in that pod, which means only one of us is getting out of here."

Page nods. "You're right, only one of us is getting out of here," Page opens the door to the pod. "And that's you!" He exclaims as he pushes me in the pod and closes the door.

"What are you doing?!" I yell, beating on the glass trying to get the door open.

"You're the better man Ethan, you always were." Tears forming in his eyes, he salutes as the pod is ejected into space.

I start pounding harder on the glass. "Jason!"

The pod is launched out into the vacuum of space, drifting. _Goddammit, why? Why did you do that you fucking idiot?!_

I look back at the Ticonderoga, the last thing I see is the ship's engine going critical, exploding in a fiery ball of both red and blue flame. Silence is all I'm greeted to. "No!" I exclaim with tears streaming down my face.

As time goes by and adreniline wears off, my wounds start taking their toll on my body. The boot prints decorating my armor, leaving bruises underneath, that would've been a lot worse had Page not shown up, the burns on my face from the grenades in the messhall, James kept those from being fatal, my broken leg that ended up knocking me unconsious, Thomas kept those mercs from ending it while I was out, it cost him his life. _Why? Why me? Why am I alive when they sacrificed more than me? Why take my friends, my brothers, away from me?!_

"Jer- ... cho," Static comes through my comms unit, I tap the reciever a few times until the signal is clear. "Jericho, this is Beck, do you read? Come on, someone answer!" Beck, he's trying to see if anyone made it off the Ticinderoga.

"Beck, it's Miller, do you copy?" I ask, defeated, and alone.

"Miller?!" he asks, exited just to hear someone made it out. "Where are you? Did anyone else make it out?"

"I'm in an escape pod, sending coordinates now," I reluctantly send Beck my location.

"What about the others?" His voice shakey, and hesitant

"They didn't make it." Those words cause me to blink back tears.

"Son of a bitch ... I'm sorry," I can hear the sadness in his voice. "Shuttle's on route to pick you up, I'll tell the Captain to meet you there, as well as Doctor Koslov.

"My legs broken, I'm ... gonna need ..." My head gets heavier with each word, and my eyes begin to droop until only darkness consumes my vision.

"Miller? Miller?!"

_

 ** _Chapter 3 ladies and gents, I can honestly admit that I am very glad with how this turned out. I hope everyone likes the dramatic approach I took with this one in, focusing not on finding out who the mercenaries who took the Ticonderoga are, (not to say that we won't ever find out) but instead seeing the mission from the POV of Ethan, and his team._**

 ** _I want to thank everyone for reading, please leave a review and stay tuned for chapter 4._**


	4. Chapter 4

This chapter was written while listening to "Gone Away" by Five Finger Death Punch.

I highly recommend you check it out, I'm a huge FFDP fan and their music is always playing when I write. Hope you enjoy.

"Man, you look like hammered shit." I hear a voice call out as they walk into my hospital room. I look up from my datapad to see someone I wasn't expecting.

"Freddy?" I ask, happiness resounding in my voice as I sit up. "What the hell are you doing here?" When he gets close enough he leans down and I hug the bastard since it's been years since I've even talked to him. "How have you been?"

He sits down in the chair next to my bed. "Well, not to good," he grimaces as he leans back in the chair. "I was wrong about something,"

"What was it?" I sit up in my bed, scratching my head. "Must have been something serious if it has you of all people sulking." Freddy's good mood is almost his defining quality. Seeing him like this, it's almost disheartening.

Freddy chuckles and stands up from the chair. "Before we shipped out, I said that the next time we saw each other you'd have to call me sir," he walks to the foot of my bed and … salutes. "Seems I was wrong, Commander." His voice reeks of pride, happiness echoing in his tone.

Without thinking, I furrow my brow and grit my teeth. "Sit down Freddy." Images of the Ticonderoga start going through my mind, I start to recall the color of the interior hallways, the pungent, stale stench. I can almost see the faces of my friends, the look on Page's face as he launched the escape pod, sending me into space.

I shake my head and Freddy gets a puzzled look on his face, wondering why I didn't call him a smartass like I usually would. "Ethan, are you okay?" His dulcet tone, coupled with a sad look plastered on his face, it all just screams worry. "I- I heard what happened, on that ship, that's part of the reason I'm here." He walks over and sits back down in the chair beside my bed. I can't lie to him, even if I wanted to he can read me like a book, he knows me too well, such a pain in the ass.

I look over at the data pad I set on the bedside table. On it, is a string of messages, some of them are from the families of my team, some are thanking me for being there with them in their last moments, others are saying that it should've been me to die instead of them, and be honest, I don't blame them.

The other messages are from both Captain Michaelson and, Admiral Hackett of all people. Michaelson's message just tells me that not only have I been promoted again, which I tried to fight against but, he said that it wasn't a choice this time, but also that Admiral Hackett would be in contact with me. Hackett's message said that once I recovered, and if I accepted, I'd be reporting to Rio for ICT, in other words … N7 qualifications.

Still, don't see why ... the mission was a success on paper. But we lost too many good people on that fucking ship. I lost my friends, people I considered family to those bastards, it should've been me. I look at Freddy, who was patiently waiting for my answer, "No, I'm not. I just lost my entire team, people that counted on me to get them out alive," I run my fingers through my hair, blinking back tears. "What's even worse, is that they're sending me to Rio. I'm being promoted for watching them die."

"That's also why I'm here," Freddy sighs as rubs the back of his neck. "I've been instructed to escort you to Rio if you accepted."

"And if I refuse?" I ask, almost gritting my teeth as he says it. "How did you even know?" An obvious look of curiosity spread across my face as I grimace.

Freddy sighs, "I got a message from your Captain, he knew that you and I are close," he mutters, looking at my bandaged face, he averts his gaze. "Maybe he thought that … I could help sway your opinion."

Sway my opinion? What the hell does that mean? I ask him that, but he just shrugs his shoulders and gives me the same look. My breath getting heavy, I shoot him an angry look. "Why would I accept this?" I grumble as Freddy lowers his head "Even if I said yes, and by some miracle I graduated. That fucking patch, would just be a constant reminder of my failure to protect them," blinking back tears, I look in the mirror on the wall next to my bed, bandages cover my torso, healing the burns from the grenades. I look at the smaller bandage on my face, covering the scar on my left eye.

"Ethan, I understand what you're going through, trust me … I do." Freddy mutters the last part under his breath.

"Do you?!" Anger in my voice, I point to the bandages on my body. "These are constant reminders." Tears forming in Freddy's eyes, he listens as I berate him. I point to the burns on my face, "I watched as my friend jumped on a grenade to keep it from killing all of us," I then point to the bandages on my chest, "I had to watch another burn to death, I can still hear her screams when I close my eyes, the fear in her voice," I clear my throat to keep myself from breaking, "I watched as a bullet came out of my friend's back, as his body fell like fucking stone," I point to my leg, "The last one, he carried me to the escape pod, through me in and launched it, I saw the look in his eyes as he knew what it meant. I have to live with that for the rest of my life."

"I was on the Warsaw, during the attack on the Citadel. My Captain ordered us to abandon ship but he stayed behind to make sure that we made it out," he swallows, pain resounding in his dulcet tone. "I've lost people too, now if your friend put you in that pod, than he had a damn good reason, because like you said, he knew what it meant." His hands gripping the foot of my bed, he looks at me with anger in his eyes. He breathes out slowly, in an attempt to calm himself down, afterwards he sits back down. "This isn't an opportunity given because you were the only one that made it out, it's being given because you're the reason the mission was a success." He mutters, leaning forward, "You're helmet cam was still recording, and I saw the footage, everything went to shit but you rallied them together and finished the mission. Use this opportunity as a way to make sure they didn't die for nothing."

God dammit, I hate it when he's right, I don't know how, but he always knows exactly what to say to calm me down. I take my omni-tool and load a call on the vid screen, Captain Michaelson appears in front of Freddy and I. He looks a bit puzzled, unsure of why I'm calling. "Commander Miller? I wasn't expecting a call so soon, how are you feeling son?" Genuine worry in his voice, he looks expectedly at me.

"Fine, sir," it takes me a moment before I'm able to form my response into words, I let out a sigh before speaking up. "I've made my decision, regarding Rio."

Michaelson waits patiently as I attempt to say the words. Hesitantly, I clear my throat, "I'll be on the first shuttle to Rio when I'm able sir." Determination in my voice as I speak.

Michaelson smiles and nods, "I'll inform the Admiral of your decision," he goes to end the call but stops. "Good luck … Ethan."

The call ends and Freddy has a massive grin spread ear to ear, "I'll be here for you until you leave," he props his feet on my bed and chuckles. "But until then, you're stuck with me."

I knock his feet off of my bed and laugh "Not with your damn hooves on my nice comfy bed."

"Come on Ethan, sharing is caring." He tries to put his feet back on my bed but the door opens, and an Asari woman walks in. The shift in tone is a nice change.

"Oh, I'm sorry for intruding, I'll come back another time." She turns to walk back out, but I speak up to stop her.

"No, you're fine ma'am, he was just leaving." Freddy gives me a look with his hands raised, I point to the door to signal where he needs to go. He chuckles as he walks out.

The Asari woman walks further into the room, staying close to the door, her natural blue skin shining, even under the fluorescent lights of the hospital, her face, innocent and full of curiosity.

"Sorry for the intrusion, I'm Dr Asheyalé T'mere. But everyone just calls me Ashe, I'm looking for an Ethan Miller, he's in the Alliance," her voice is sophisticated and polite. "Am I correct in assuming you're him?"

I nod, a bit taken back by how proper she is for an Asari her age, she barely looks to be in her maiden stage. "That's me, but, can I ask why you're here?" I ask, trying not to sound rude. Something about her seems … oddly familiar, but I can't place it.

She lowers her head and swallows before stepping forward and slowly lifting her head. "You don't remember me." Sadness in her voice, she turns around to walk out of the room but again, my voice stops her.

"Wait … where should I remember you from?"

She slowly turns back around, her head never raising to face me. "A year ago, I was trapped underneath piles of rubble, pinned with a pillar on my legs. I thought that was it for me, until light washed across my face, with a human standing above me, telling me that I was going to fine," Tears well up in her eyes as she blinks them back. "I don't remember much after that, just a name, and a face, yours." She slowly lifts her head as she walks up to my bed.

With everything that happened at the Citadel, I almost forgot about her, her legs seem to be fine after all this time, considering the massive pillar she was pinned under.

"I don't understand, how did you find me? I ask, dumbfounded.

Ashe gives a slight giggle. "It wasn't easy, you have a very common name, which made it all that much harder." She ran through a lot of hoops to get to me, going as far as the human embassy on the Citadel, it all sounds like she's stalking me, but with the way she carries herself … she's either very timid, or an assassin who is a very gifted actress.

She gets a bit flustered and sits down next me and we have a very pleasant conversation. She was born on Illium, and like me, she lost her father at a young age but since he was a Turian, it was more of a case of old age, she is one hundred and twelve years old. She had just received her doctorate in medicine before the attack on the Citadel.

There's something about her, I don't know what it is but … I feel safer with her. Like I can just be Ethan, instead of Commander Miller.

I adjust my position in my bed to sit up a bit more straight, my bandage scratches against my burns, causing me to groan in pain. Ashe gives me a worried look. "Are you okay?" She asks before standing up. I nod, but she walks around my bed to get a look at the bandages on my left shoulder. "Should I get the nurse?" She mutters worriedly.

I shake my head. "There are more people in this hospital who are in worse shape than me, they need the nurses more than I do." Ashe smiles before removing my bandages. "What are you doing?" I ask pulling my shoulder away.

"You didn't say anything about Doctors, now hand me my bag and sit still." Her tone taking a more commanding stance to it, I reach over and grab her bag before giving it to her, realizing there's no getting out of this, I sit as still as I can. She grabs the medi-gel out of her bag and rubs it on my burns, the cool gel, combined with her soft hands, slowly making their way across my shoulder, down my back and on left side of my chest, felt like heaven.

A small sigh escapes me, she pulls her hand back and wraps a fresh set of bandages on my shoulder, the bandages didn't feel as bad as the last set, but compared to her hands it was like sandpaper on my skin. "Something wrong?" Her voice sounding like angels descending into my hospital room.

A sudden tightening in my chest appears when I look at her. What the hell? What is wrong with me? I clear my throat as I look back toward the door. "Sorry." I run my fingers through my hair, I can feel her eyes scanning me, looking at my various scars. Pull yourself together Ethan, she's just applying medi-gel. No need to think more of it. Without thinking, I grab her hand, still resting atop my shoulder. What are you doing?! You fucking idiot, now look what you've done! A lump in my throat appearing as I attempt to form words. "I-I just wanted to thank you."

Ashe lets out a curious chuckle. "Thank me? I should be the one thanking you. You're the only reason I'm even standing here. This is the least I can do to show my gratitude." Her voice resounding with guilt. "I just wish I could do more. You deserve it." Looking at her down hearted expression, I blurt out without even thinking.

"You're doing more than enough, just by talking to me." Alright, that was good, just don't say anything stupid to fuck it up. "Everyone talks to me as Commander Miller, I've been treated like that for so long I've … I've forgotten what it feels like to just be Ethan." Alright so far so good.

Ashe reels back, worry in her eyes. "I'm sorry … I didn't know something as simple as talking to you like a person could have that much of an impact," she mutters, a smile forming on her face. "I'm glad I could do that at least." She grips the hand I have placed over hers on my shoulder, and I run my thumb over her fingers.

Seeing her smile fills me with emotions and feelings I didn't even know I had. What the hell is wrong with me? Was there something in that medi-gel? I could stare into her pale blue eyes forever, before I could say anything, I noticed that my heartbeat had gotten a lot faster. Wait a minute, shortness of breath, lump in my throat, tightening feeling in my chest, barely being able to speak … oh shit. The realization washes over me like a tsunami. How am I even supposed to bring that up?! I've never been good at things like this! Freddy! He'll know! I can just ask him.

Ashe looks at my nervous expression and breaks the silence, her voice growing somber as each word passes through her lips. "I have to go." She turns to leave, grabbing her bag from the other side of my bed, her brow furrowing, clearly not wanting to leave just yet.

Shit, I might not have another shot at this before I leave for Rio. Don't think about it, just do it. "Wait!" I yell to Ashe before she gets to the door, she looks at me, curiosity ridden across her face.

She walks up to my bed, my breath getting heavier as she gets closer to me.

When she get close enough, I hesitantly open my mouth. Don't fuck this up. "I-" I shake my head, "Fuck it." I grab her hand and pull her closer to me, cupping her face in my hands and pressing my lips against hers. Her surprised moan made me think I did something wrong, but after what was happening registered in her mind, not only did she let it happen, but she wrapped her arms around me and pulled me closer to her, pressing her lips against mine. She ran her fingers through my hair, as I grabbed her hand and locked our fingers together. The subtle sound of our lips parting will stay with me as long as I live.

Oh no, that was stupid, why did I do that?!

"I thought you were never gonna do that." her voice lost in the ecstasy of what we just did.

"Me too, to be completely honest," mine sounding more nervous. "I'm sorry."

Ashe giggles as I say that, "Don't be, it lets me know that I'm not crazy."

I look back at her, puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"I came here for more than just to thank you," sounding almost sad, she averts her eyes, looking away from me. Her voice breaking with each word. "I didn't think it was a good idea, considering we just met, and that you're in bandages," her smile filling me with joy "But now that I know you feel the same way, I know that I was just paranoid." She leans forward, kissing my cheek before standing back up, sadness in her eyes, "I do have to leave, however."

I grab her hand, locking our fingers again, "Can I see you again?" I ask, hopeful that she'll say yes.

She nods, telling me that she'll come back to see me everyday. The thought of that makes me happier than I've been in a long time.

That … that couldn't have gone any better. The way she makes me feel, she's the only person who makes me feel like an actual person, instead of just another cog in the machine. I love the Alliance, I'd gladly lay down my life for what it stands for, but it's nice to feel human for a change.

Two weeks have gone by since then, my leg is fully healed thanks to the advancement of modern medical science, hundred years ago, my leg would've taken months to heal, thankfully it only took a few weeks. Freddy and Ashe have been by every day to visit. Freddy still doesn't know about what happened between Ashe and I. I don't know whether or not to tell him for her sake, I don't know how he'd react so we silently agreed to keep it quiet. I still don't know what to even call us, we haven't made anything official. I want to ask her about that before Freddy and I leave for Rio in three days.

I'm currently in my room, I asked the doctors to set up a pull up bar so I could keep my body occupied without taking up space in the gym.

"Thirty … thirty one … thirty two!" I grunt as I pull myself up, hanging upside down by my knees. My last stress test to see how well healed my leg is.

I hear the door open, shortly after that I hear Freddy set something down on the nightstand next to the bed. I signal for him to help me down, he walks over and holds the bar as I ease my way down. Panting, I grab the towel I placed on the bed and wipe the sweat from my face.

"Good to see your leg can handle that. How's it feel?" He looks at my leg, eyeing it like the doctors did. To show him my leg is fully healed, I stand on one leg putting my full body weight on my left leg, with a smug shit eating grin on my face. He nods and gives me a thumbs up as I sit down on the bed.

Freddy sits in the chair and leans forward. "Can I ask you something?" His voice almost at a whisper.

"Uh … sure?" Not sure what's with the secrecy, but my curiosity is peaked.

"That Asari, you think I have shot? His words make me swallow, my eyes widen and I clear my throat.

"Uh …" before I can answer Freddy starts laughing.

"Come on man, you think I don't know what's going on?" He shakes his head and chuckles a bit more to himself. "It's obvious that she has a thing for you."

"You think?" My voice sounding obviously nervous. Hopefully he doesn't know I'm playing dumb.

The sound of the door opening breaks the awkward atmosphere Freddy created. Ashe walks in, and leans on the wall next to the door.

"I need to take care of something, I'll talk to you about when the shuttle leaves later on." Freddy stands up and walks by Ashe, he whispers something to her before he walks out.

Ashe then sits next to me, rests her head on my shoulders, and wraps her arms around my chest.

"I wish you didn't have to go," sounding almost like a playful pout, she groans when she hears me chuckle.

"Me too," I sigh as I lean closer and kiss her forehead. "I wish we had more time." I wrap my arm around her.

I sigh again, as I lean closer to her. How do I even bring this up? I lift her chin up to face me, but before I can say anything, "Can I say something?" Without thinking, I nod.

"I did some research on what ICT is, its sounds like you won't have a lot of time for yourself. I just want you to know something." Her voice sounding dulcet, she sighs, and lifts her head up a bit further. "I want … this, what we have, to be real. I want to be in your life, not just as your friend," she takes my hand, and locks our fingers. "But as yours."

A weight feeling like it was being lifted of my shoulders, I smile and start pulling her closer to me. "I was just about to ask you the same thing,"

I laugh slightly and run my thumb on her cheek, her skin feeling as soft as ever, like cotton on my finger tips.

No matter what … I'm hers.

Chapter 4 is here ladies and gents, I thought it was time to address the "romance" aspect of this story and what better way to do that than bring back a character from 2 chapters ago. Yeah you thought we weren't gonna see her again didn't you? This is my first time writing romance, I hope it's not as cringy as some I've read. Thank you again for reading, your feedback means the world to me, I genuinely enjoy reading every review and knowing that you guys enjoy reading something I wrote only makes me want to write more.


	5. One-Shot

This is not the official Chapter 5, this is a just short one-shot to build up relationships while I finish writing chapter 5. I hope you all enjoy this, and I hope you understand.

"Hey there handsome," I hear Ashe walking up behind me, I turn around to face her and I'm greeted with … the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. She's wearing the short black dress I got her, the jewels on her neck, shining with every step she takes. Her perfect blue skin shimmering under the bright lights of the nightclub, almost acting like a spotlight on a runway. "Expecting someone?" She leans against the bar.

Play along, this was your idea so don't fuck up. "Just waiting for a friend." I try and make my voice sound tougher by breaking it up, making it rough. However, my attempt to sound tough only led to me making myself look like an idiot. I run my fingers through my hair to get it out of my face, and to make up for my stupidity. Looking down at the tux my mother recommended I get I can't help but feel like I look ridiculous.

Ashe just gives me a one-sided smile, I can just barely see her tongue from underneath her lip. "This friend of yours, she anyone special?" She is so much better at this than me. Sounding almost like a femme fatale you'd see in old spy vids, she runs her finger along the rim of the glass of wine the bartender gave her.

"You could say that." I chuckle, still trying to sound tough, the bartender hands me a drink and I look to see what it is. Bourbon … my favorite. Damn, she's good. I take a sip, the subtle burn of the bourbon making its way down my throat.

"Tell me about her." Ashe sips her wine, now sitting on the bar stool, legs crossed facing me with eagerness in those big, pale blue eyes I've come to admire so much.

"Well, she's an Asari."

"That all?" She chuckles

"We met on the Citadel, just after the Geth attack,"

I start to remember the image of Ashe being pinned under piles of rubble, her legs being crushed under the weight of a pillar that had fallen during the attack. "I kept a pillar from crushing her."

"Sounds like you saved her life," Her voice breaking slightly before finishing. "She must be important to you."

I hold her hand on the bar, her soft, supple skin cooling my hard, callused hands. "She is." I look deep into her eyes as I say those words. Images flash through my mind, not of the past, but the future, I see little blue children on my shoulders, smiling as Ashe walks toward us. The thought of that fills me with joy. Without thinking, I grab her waist and pull her toward me, our lips meeting as she gasps. The taste of wine covers my tongue as I feel her hands cupping the back of my neck. Our tongues wrapping around one another as we both start to run out of breath.

"I love you, Ethan," our faces just centimeters apart, her breath hitting my mouth with each word.

She beat me to it, I was hoping to say it first. It's like she took words right out of my mouth.

"I love you too Ashe. If this is a dream, I'll kill the bastard that wakes me up." I chuckle as I pull her in to kiss her again.

She grabs my hand. "Let's go get some privacy."

I know it's been a while since I updated this story and I don't want to make you all think I've given up on it because that's not the case. I'm simply having a bit of trouble with classic writer's block.

So to hopefully make up for the long wait for Chapter 5 I have this for you guys. It's a short little one-shot to build up the relationship of Ethan and Ashe. I really hope you guys like it and I'm sorry about the long wait but trust me, chapter 5 is coming and I'll make sure its worth the wait.

Also if you haven't already, please go check out the FaceBook group: Mass Effect Fan-fiction writers. It's filled with so many talented writers and all of them are well worth checking out. Just tell them Chance sent you lol. But seriously, don't just take my word for it, go see for yourself.


	6. Chapter 5

"We've been at this for days Commander," the man stands up from his chair and walks around the table to stand next to me. His stench fills my nose. He leans against the table, facing me. "My patience is wearing thin." Days… has it been that long since they put me in this chair? I can't even tell anymore.

I look down at the restraints on my hands and ankles, spitting blood on the floor. "Then just kill me, because I'm not telling you shit."

Chuckling, he walks back over to his chair. "Where's the fun in that?" I feel something grab the back of my head and slam it onto the table. The other man standing behind me leans down, but the other man sitting in front of me stands back up. "That's enough, we don't want to kill him before he gives us what we need."

I feel hands grabbing my head and pulling it off of the table, I'm barely able to keep my eyes open as my vision begins to fade. "Miller, Ethan, Lieutenant Commander, service number: 566394, in other words, go fuck yourself." I spit in his face, using all the energy I had left to laugh as I did it. My vision fades to black before I feel another hit across my jaw, jolting me awake.

Wiping his face, he grimaces at me and snaps his fingers. "If that's how you want to play it, fine." He gestures to one of the men standing behind me, the next thing I know I feel something hit me in the back of my head. I can feel my vision fading as my restraints are undone.

Slowly, my vision comes back and I'm greeted with little more than blinding lights and that familiar stench of stagnant artificial air. I try to sit up and get my bearings, but a hand presses against me and pushes me down. "Easy there, human. They really did a number on you and I'm not taking responsibility for you ending up dead."

"Who are you?" My voice breaking with each word, lack of water will do that. I look up and I see a Turian sitting next to me, she shakes her head and stands up.

"Don't remember me? Alright, I'm Selene Vícar." She kneels down next to me and checks the bandage on my head which I'm assuming she put there. Now I remember, she was here when they first brought me here. I guess the lack of food or sleep in God knows how long has made me delirious.

"Sorry, I must have forgotten. How long was I out?" I try and swallow to wet my throat, but it doesn't do anything make me wish for something, anything to drink. At this point I'll drink that God awful scotch Freddy won't shut up about.

"A few hours, they dropped you in here and one of their doctors patched you up. Why I don't know."

She fumbles with my bandage trying to center it. Moving it around hurts like hell, I can feel it scratching against the open wound on my head when she touches it.

"They said they want me alive until I give them information." gritting my teeth, trying to hide the pain, I turn my head. Salene turns around to grab something and when she turns back, she hands me a bottle. Out of pure reflex I grab and start drinking, after 3 large gulps of the best damn water I've ever had, she grabs the bottle and sets it down next to her.

"Easy, your body can't handle much more harm and chugging water won't help," Scolding me, she gives off an almost motherly aura. "So lay back, shut up, and get some rest."

"Sure thing, mom." Leaning back, I can hear a slight scoff.

"Nearly dead, and you find time to be a smart ass, are all humans like that?" She almost sounds amused. "At least you're not a whiner." I can see a her mandibles move, which I'm assuming means that she's smiling.

"Yeah, I get that from my dad. He would always tell me that whining gets me nothing but my ass kicked." I wonder what he would say if he saw me now, lying in a cell barely able to stay awake on my own volition. I doubt he would say anything I'd want to hear.

"Well, if you don't get some rest, I'll kick your ass."

She sits down against the wall and leans her head back.

Maybe I should get some sleep. I can't help but think of Ashe. I miss her… so fucking much it hurts. I'd give anything just to see her again, the way her eyes shine when she smiles. Her soft voice whispering in my ear. I'm going to get out of here Blue… I promise.

Hours go by and I can feel the sweet release of sleep begin to slowly take me.

Jolting awake, I find myself in an all too familiar room tied to an even more familiar chair. Looking around, I see the same man from before, smug grin plastered on his face with long grey hair stopping just short of his shoulders. "I don't think I ever properly introduced myself Commander, I'm Victor Shaw, I hope you had a nice rest. Now, where were we?" The same patronizing tone filling my ears.

"Ah I remember, you were about to tell me why you were at the colony where my men found you."

"And I remember telling you to go fuck yourself." Letting a grin visibly appear, I lean back in my chair.

That smile never leaves his face as he signals his men to proceed to turn me into their personal sparring dummies. "Three weeks you've been here Commander, and still you still haven't learned," A snap of his fingers and his men go back to standing in the corner behind me. I spit blood onto the floor and he still sits just across the table with that damn smile. "You think yourself strong because you say nothing? Well I did some research and I think I know what will get you to talk," He opens his Omni-Tool and brings up security footage from the Citadel before the Reapers attacked Earth. The camera focuses on someone sitting at the bar, an Asari walks up to him and sits next to him. The camera zooms in on the two and enhances to get a clear view of their faces, and all my fears were realized. It shows the day Ashe and I were on the Citadel shortly after I got out of the hospital before I shipped out for ICT, it pans over to Ashe and freezes. "Judging by the look on your face, and the sweet and tender kiss the two of you share at the end I'm assuming you're close."

Okay Ethan, think. She can't get involved, if he thinks she isn't anyone maybe he'll leave her alone. "What does some random Asari have to do with this?" Hoping to hide the look of worry, I look away from the footage.

Laughing, Shaw closes the footage and pulls up a dossier, I try and look away but the men behind me grab my head and force me to look. The dossier is from Ashe's resume, she applied to serve as a doctor for the Alliance the day after I left for ICT. At the bottom is her emergency contact information. "Incase of emergency, please contact Lt Commander Ethan Miller, relationship: spouse. Hmm, seems to me that she's more than just a 'random Asari' if anything I'd say you two are more than close," Dammit… I told you not to use my real name Blue. "I'll make this simple Commander, we know where she is, so you can either tell us why you were on that colony… or I can have a few of my men pay her a bit of a visit."

Shaw's tone taking a more serious direction, with his smile being replaced with a scowl.

"Leave her alone, or when I get out of this chair, and believe me I will. You will be begging me to kill you." Gritting my teeth, I furrow my brow and stare daggers at Shaw.

"Well, as much as I would like to kill the blue squid, if you give me the information I need and I won't need to involve her," Hearing him talk about her that way causes me to grit my teeth and pull at my restraints. Shaw notices and leans back in his chair almost relaxing. "Seems I've struck a bit if a nerve, just tell me what I want and she'll be unharmed."

I don't know what I'm supposed to do here. If I tell him, what's to stop him from just killing her anyway? "My patience is running thin Commander… I might just have to-"

"Wait! … Fine, I'll tell you."

"Ethan, you okay?" Freddy is sitting next to me on the shuttle. We're making our way to a colony where a Turian ship went missing. After the Reaper war, in an effort to unite the council races our militaries took a select number of ships and crews and formed the United Galactic Defense Force or UGDF for short. The Alliance chose three ships for Humanity's part in the UGDF: The Normandy, The Omaha, and The Manhattan. The ship that was reported MIA was last seen in this system. Hopefully, this colony can give us something. This soon after the war we need some good news.

"I'm fine, just hoping for some good news." Luckily I managed to convince Captain Michaelson to assign Freddy to the Manhattan. He's a damn good soldier, and we know each other well enough to get the job done effectively. I turn to look at the other members of Jericho. I handpicked each of them after the war. They've all been with me since the Reaper's initial invasion of Earth.

First, there's Derek Nelson, a British sniper with an ego the size of a dreadnaught, but luckily he knows his place and once you get past his ego he isn't that bad.

Sitting next to him is Eva Michelle, she's got a natural affinity for biotics and she isn't that bad with a shotgun either. She's a bit timid so I've taken to calling her "Shy".

Lastly, there's Martin Davis, he's almost as smart as his brother Leonard. Like most technically gifted soldiers, Martin has a personal drone he designed himself. It isn't uncommon for more technically minded people to have a drone, but his has every other drone I've seen beaten.

After taking a moment to ponder the mission, I stand up and their eyes are all on me, waiting for me to brief them. "Okay Jericho, there isn't a lot we know about this planet, other than its a mining colony based out of Hades Gamma. There was a Turian ship reported MIA not too long ago that was sighted in this system. The colony here hasn't responded to our attempts to make contact. We're going in to see if they'll respond in person."

The shuttle lands and we all funnel out, I signal the pilot and he takes off back to the Manhattan

After a short walk, we get to the colony's main gate. Strange, there isn't anyone at the gate.

"You'd think there would at least be someone here to greet us," Nelson blurts out behind me.

"I've got a bad feeling about th-"

"Don't… every time someone says that in any situation something goes wrong, so do us all a favor, and delete that phrase from your vocabulary." Freddy cuts Nelson off and it earns a slight chuckle from the rest of us.

Walking through the gate, we're expecting someone to greet us, but again… no-one.

"Where is everyone?" I walk up to an open door and peek inside, again finding no-one. Searching the colony building by building just adds validity to my question. We see abandoned mining equipment scattered across the outside of the buildings, almost like they were left in a rush.

"I don't like this," I grab my comm unit and place it up to my ear. "Beck, it's Miller, we're at the colony but… there isn't anyone here."

"What do you mean?" Sounding skeptical, Beck responds.

"I mean it's empty, no-one is here, all the buildings are empty." Walking toward the central courtyard, what I see… will haunt me for the rest of my life. The colonists are all strung up and their bodies are spread across the courtyard, almost like a decoration. I hear Freddy and the others turn away out of disgust.

"Miller? What's the matter? What do you see?" Beck begins firing questions off one after the other.

"Found the colonists… or rather, what's left of them," after keeping myself from vomiting, I find the words to describe the atrocity in front of me.

Atrocity doesn't begin to describe what I'm looking at. I don't even know what to call this. "We're gonna finish our sweep and try to find anything that'll tell us who, or what did this." I put my comms unit back in my Omni-Tool and take another look at the pile of bodies hoping not to see any of the Turians. Instead, the bodies are mostly human, a few batarians scattered among the corpses. I turn back to Jericho and have us split up, I told Freddy to take Martin and scour the western area of the colony while Nelson goes to the clock tower to provide overwatch while I take Shy and we search the eastern area.

Searching around the eastern part of the colony, I take point with Shy following close behind me. After an hour of finding little more than empty buildings, we reach a larger house and after a thorough search, Shy points me toward a terminal. Damn things been wiped, I doubt I'll be able to find anything on it.

"Commander, Nelson here. I'm seeing movement in the atrium." Nelson's voice frantically comes in on my comms unit.

"On our way, Freddy, meet is there. Nelson don't take your eyes off that building and let me know if anything comes in or out. Let's move Shy!" We rush back to the courtyard and stack up at the entrance to the atrium with Freddy just behind me, and Martin and Shy behind him. Nelson is keeping watch from the clock tower.

As soon as the door opens, we all rush into the room and thoroughly search it. "Well... I'm almost happy to see you." A broken and battered voice calls out from one of the end corners of the atrium. We all snap to it with weapons raised. "Calm down human, I'm not in any shape to do any real harm." The Turian we see looks at us and we see the extent of his wounds. His armor is badly damaged, shrapnel sticking out of his chest plate and a small puddle of blood pooling beneath him.

I rush over to him and start pulling out Medi-gel. "Hold on, we can get you to our ship, our doctor knows a lot about Turian physiology, this might help a bit until we get you to him," I signal for Martin to call the Manhattan to pick us up. "What's your name?"

"Lieutenant Tran Olar, I'm assuming you're Alliance?" His voice regaining it's dual-toned nature with the help of the Medi-gel.

"For the most part. Our ship was assigned to the UGDF. I'm Commander Miller, but just call me Ethan. This is my team, we're called Jericho," Applying Medi-gel to an armored Turian trying to spread it around shrapnel isn't easy. Martin walks back over to us and kneels down next to Shy and Freddy. "What the hell happened here?"

"No offense Commander, but I'd rather discuss it with your Captain." He spouts out with his voice still slowly beginning to heal.

"Well, our ship will be here soon. I'm sure the Captain will want to speak with you." Martin speaks up behind us.

"Commander, Nelson again. I've got more movement coming from the South." Nelson sounds rushed and worried.

I turn to Lt Olar and ask him if there were any more of his crew left, he shakes his head no. "How many?"

"A lot, I don't know if they're friendly or not."

"You know the rest, my team and the Turian went down through a service tunnel and you found me in the atrium. The last thing I remember is throwing Nelson into the tunnel when he came down from the tower and waking up in that cell." I grimace toward Shaw, his face never changing from the smug and patronizing look I've sadly gotten accustomed to seeing. Shaw looks at his men and snaps his fingers. They leave the room and Shaw leans forward.

"Now that wasn't so hard, was it?" As patronizing as ever, he stands up and begins to walk out, he stops and turns to me before walking out the door. "If only you did that sooner. I'm looking forward to meeting Dr. T'mere." You can stay in here until my men get her here."

"What?! I told you what you wanted, you said you'd leave her alone!" Screaming, I struggle to get out of my restraints.

Shaw leans against the wall and smiles. "I lied."

Well, after a very long wait (Im very sorry about that btw) the official fifth chapter is finally here and I hope you enjoy it. I really wanted to make this chapter into something suspenseful, hence the cliffhanger at the end. I hope you don't mind the direction I went, skipping Ethan's experience in the Reaper war was a big decision for me, but that doesn't mean I won't cover it. The Realer war is such a massive part of the Mass Effect Lore that I decided that I want to dedicate another story entirely revolving around Ethan's time in the war. In the meantime, check out Lady Aimee, she is easily one of my favorite writers on this sight and she is very deserving of your time. Thank you again and please be patient while I write chapter six.


	7. Chapter 6

Tied to a chair, keeping my eyes shut, I'm forced to listen to the sound of Ashe being beaten. Her pained cries fill my ears, after what felt like an eternity the beating stops and I feel a hand grab my head and force my eyes open and I see the bastard causing her so much pain. A tall, bald Japanese man stands above me, a scar going along the length of his face from his left eye to the right side of his mouth.

"Eyes open young man, I want you to watch this," his voice, scratched and broken masked by heavy breathing from the constant beatings he has been giving the both of us. He walks to the end of the table where Ashe is sitting, her face littered with bruises, small gashes going along her forehead, and her lips are swollen, the man lifts her head to face me, "Look at him Asari, he is the reason you're here, the reason you're in so much pain."

Ashe slowly lifts her head and I can see the tears welling up in her eyes. Tears of my own blocking my vision as I look her in the eyes, the once deep shade of pale blue now masked by sorrow, "Listen to me Blue, everything is gonna be fine. I promise you." Laughing, the man leans down to me.

"That's right, tell her everything will be fine. Lie to her and make her feel better," he reaches behind him, pulls out a gun, and loads it. "We both know you aren't leaving this room alive, and Shaw gave me free reign to do whatever I want. So why don't I just end this now and get it over with?" Smiling, he points the gun at Ashe, "Or, since you seem to care so much about this… thing, I could have a little fun and shoot her. Leaving you in here to watch as she slowly bleeds out, watching the light leave her eyes. Imagining the look on your face as it happens is just filling me with joy."

"Don't! Just let her go, if you want to kill anyone just kill me!" Desperate, I try and convince him that she doesn't deserve to die. _It's my fault she's here, she shouldn't die because of me_.

"It's okay Ethan…" a soft, pained voice comes from the end of the table, Ashe looks up at me and… smiles, "We'll see each other again soon," tears streaming down her face with each word feeling like a bullet wound, she tries to convince me it will be okay, "I love you, Hero."

"I love you too." Blinking back tears, I'm trying to keep my composure but, knowing I can't help her without getting us both killed. I've never felt more helpless.

"Well isn't that sweet? I almost don't want to kill you. Almost." He points the gun at Ashe and right when it looks like he's about to pull the trigger.

"Kitamura, change of plans, the boss just got back and wants them alive." A voice comes in over the intercom and the man who I now know as Kitamura, lowers his gun and groans.

"Damn, right when I was having fun. Looks like it's your lucky day," Kitamura holsters his pistol, and wipes the blood from his hands. "I need to wash up, so I guess you're getting a break for now." He walks out of the room and the door closes behind him.

"Ashe, are you okay?!" I blurt out when the door closes. She nods and I let out a sigh of relief, "We need to get out of here. You think you can make it?" My voice clearly full of fatigue and desperation. _It's my fault she's even here, she is not gonna die because of my fuck up_.

"How can we? Goddess only knows how many of them there are on this floor alone?!" She's clearly scared, but we can't stay here. The one in charge wants us alive for now but it's only a matter if time before they just kill us anyway. "Do you even have a plan?"

I shake my head, "No, but the longer we stay here the closer they are to killing us, and I am not letting that happen to you," darting my head around the room, I look around the room, trying to find something we could use, I look down at my restraints. "I think I can get out of my restraints, but I don't think you're gonna like how." Before she can ask, I wince as I pop my right thumb out of its socket so I can get it out of the cuff. Before I can get my other hand free, I bite my thumb and yank it back into place. My teeth breaking the skin, causing my thumb to bleed, wincing again, I grab the cuff on my left hand and break it open. After I get the restraints on my feet open I stand up to get Ashe free, but the lack of food or water in God knows how long catches up with me and I fall over.

Ashe calls out to me but I raise my hand and tell her I'm fine. Using what little strength I have left, I pull myself up onto the table and undo Ashe's restraints. She stands up and helps me to my feet. "Ethan, are you sure you can do this? You can barely stand let alone walk out of here." Worried, she puts a hand on my chest to support my weight.

"Don't worry about me, right now we just need to get out of here," I stumble over to the wall next to the door and open the monitor on the wall, it shows a camera that's just outside the room with a guard right outside the door. "One outside, we're not gonna be able to sneak past him. Listen, I know you're not gonna like this, but it's him or us. And I choose us." After a moment, Ashe reluctantly nods.

"Okay, stay back and let me handle him. I don't want you to get hurt." She nods again and I lean against the wall to support myself.

I open the door and upon seeing the guard with his back turned toward us, I try and kick the back of his leg but desperation coupled with overall fatigue causes me to lose my balance and sends me falling onto him. Scrambling, he reaches for his gun, I manage to knock it away and wrap my arms around his neck and try to choke him. He flails his arms trying to get free, but before he manages to get free, I wrench my arms until I hear a pop and his arms stop, and fall. Panting, I let go and push him off of me, Ashe runs out of the room flustered, but calms down when she sees me trying to get up. Once I get to my knees I hear a gasp and when I look, Ashe is covering her mouth and closing her eyes. "It's okay, he won't be getting back up. I know you don't like it, but we're dead if they catch us outside of that room so this is what we have to do to get out of here."

"I know, I'm just trying to get my bearings," She lets out an audible sigh and kneels down beside me. "What are you doing?"

I turn his body over to grab his Omni-Tool, I strap it to my arm and activate the Omni-Blade, "We're gonna need this," I make my way over him and grab his gun, "Take this, only use it as a last resort."

"Ethan, I can't take that, you're better than me with a gun you take it." She tries to to give it back to me, but I push it back toward her.

"You need it more than me… look, incase something happens to me you need to able to defend yourself. You remember what I showed you?" I put my hand on her shoulder and she nods. "Good, then we need to know where we're going." I open the dead guards Omni-Tool to try to find anything resembling a map and after a few moments I finally find one. We're closer to the detention level than I thought. Making my way to my feet, using the wall for support, with Ashe holding onto me supporting my other side we make our way to the elevator. I can feel my legs about to give with each step I take feeling like a mile. After what feels like an eternity, we make it to the elevator.

"Which one takes us to the escape pods?" Ashe frantically searches through the panel.

"We're not going to the escape pods." My breath becoming heavy, my voice more and more fatigued.

"What?! Why not?!" Ashe whips her head around to glare at me.

"There's someone on the detention level, she can help us get out of here."

"Fine, if you think she can, then I guess it's worth a shot."

I press the button to take us to the detention level but before the door closes, an all to familiar hand keeps it open. "Well, and here I thought we were becoming friends," Kitamura walks into the elevator and throws us out of it, he walks out laughing. "Well, at least now I have a reason to kill you." Repeatedly kicking me in the stomach, he laughs maniacally as Ashe points the gun at him, "And what do you plan on doing with that squid? Hmm? You plan to ink me you little bitch?!" I hear Ashe cry out as Kitamura punches her in the face.

"Leave. Her. Alone." Every word is followed by audible coughing, I crawl toward them and grab his leg, trying to pull myself up.

Kitamura looks down at me, that sadistic smile plastered across his face, "Well, you still have some fight left in you, don't worry, I fully intend on milking every bit of it." His foot swings around and kicks me square in the jaw, he tosses Ashe to the ground and kicks her gun away from her. "You know, I'm actually glad you got out, now we can really have some fun." He walks over to me and continues to use my head as his own personal welcome mat, never ceasing to let us know how amusing this is to him.

"Stop!" Ashe's screams cause him to stop and look at her. "Leave him alone." Sobbing now, she pleads with Kitamura.

Kitamura now shifts his attention to Ashe, now on her knees begging him to stop. "You know, I've always wondered what everyone saw in you squids, and the more I look at you, the more I want to find out for myself."

"Don't you fucking touch her!" gritting my teeth, I clench my fist and the Omni-Blade activates. "You said you wanted to fight?" I raise both of my hands and do my best to keep from falling over. "Then how about someone who can fight back?"

"You're either really brave, or really stupid. So let's find out." Before I'm able to react, Kitamura lunges toward me and starts letting out a fury rights and lefts, each feeling like a Mac truck. I manage to get away from one, causing him to hit the wall. I try to take advantage but he's faster than I thought and takes me to the ground, never relenting his onslaught of punches.

"You know, I thought someone with your reputation would put up more of a fight!" Kitamura leans back and raises his right arm, his Omni-Blade. "Always wanted to use one of these." Laughing, he lunges at me and time almost seems to stop.

 _Not like this_. I take my Omni-Blade and stab him under his arm, using the momentum to get him off of me and knock him back. He tries to stand back up, but I thrust my Omni-Blade into his leg and when he falls I make sure he won't get back up by stabbing that bastard in his throat. The only thing audible in the hallway is Kitamura choking on his own blood.

"Choke on it motherfucker!" gritting my teeth, I spit in his face and make my way over to Ashe who is covering her eyes and sobbing. "Ashe, are you okay?" I move her hands from her eyes cup her face in my hands. "Blue, it's me, open your eyes."

Once she finally opens her eyes and sees it's me, she lunges forward and wraps her arms around me and loudly sobbs. "Are you okay?!" She cries out as she helps me to my feet. I nod and we get back in the elevator to go to the detention level.

The elevator door opens and we slowly make our way to the holding cells. Leaning against a wall for support I slowly peek my head around the corner to see two guards on patrol, walking toward us. Ashe and I take cover in a side room and wait until the guards are far enough away for us to make our way to the cells. Once they get to a safe distance for us to move we get to the holding cell where we find a lone Turian sitting against a wall. Ashe opens the door and Selene stands up, surprised when she sees Ashe and I standing on the other side.

"Miller? What the hell are you doing here?"

"No time to explain, we're getting out of here now come on, it's only a matter of time before they find out we're gone."

"Don't have to tell me twice."

As if on cue the ship wide alert is sounded and we hurry back to the elevator, only to be cut off by the ship jolting to one side, causing us all to fall over.

Sirens blaring and the sounds of scrambling mercs coming from all around us.

"Attention crew, this is Director Shaw, we are being engaged by an unknown enemy vessel. This is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill." Shaw's voice coming in, sounding almost panicked.

Ashe and I instinctively look at each other. "Ethan, is that-"

"Gotta be, let's go come on!"

We get to the elevator only to find out that whatever caused the ship to jolt, knocked out power to the elevator, we end up improvising by heading to the stairwell. It takes longer than I would like to finally get to the level of the ship holding the escape pods, sadly the door we open puts us on the wrong end. I open the map on the Omni-Tool and it leads to a shortcut through the armory. We make our way to the armory and Selene takes one of their rifles as an "insurance policy". Opening the door I'm the first one out when a gunshot stops me in my tracks. Stumbling back, I can hear Ashe scream as mercs flood the room and pin both her and Selene to the walls behind us.

Blood filling my mouth, I spit it out and put my hand on the bullet wound to try and stop the bleeding. Among the array of mercs around us, there's one walking in whose armor looks different from others. From what I can tell, instead of the black that the rest are wearing, his is more blue with highlights of yellow and his helmet looks almost like an Alliance helmet. "Well, I'm glad you and I can finally have a chance to talk man to man."

"You bastard! Stay away from him!" Ashe screams and the man walks over and slaps her across the face.

"I'm not talking to you squid, it'd be in your best interest to shut your mouth." His voice… why do I feel like I know it?

He walks over to me and kneels down. "Might be better if I take this thing off." He takes off his helmet and when he looks up, "Hello Ethan, it's been a while."

"P-Page?"

I know, I know, I really need to work on my timing on when I update and release new chapters but I had some things IRL that needed to be taken care of so I'm sorry it took this long. Hopefully the longer chapter makes up for it. While you're here you should go on FaceBook if you have one and look up the Mass Effect Fanfiction Writers page. They have some of the best writers who are all genuinely nice people who help aspiring writers like myself and they are well worth your time.


	8. Chapter 7

"Y-You're supposed to be dead." coughing up blood, I'm still trying to make sense of what I'm looking at. _There's no way it's him, it can't be_.

"You see, one would think that, but yet here I am. And you seem to have done well for yourself," he gestures toward me, pointing to the gaping hole in my stomach. "Considering. I bet you're wondering how I'm even alive let alone standing in front of you, so seeing as you're about to bleed out I'll have to keep it short. To boil it down, it turns out that the shuttle bay was closer to the pods then we originally thought, after just barely avoiding being caught in the explosion from the Ticonderoga and floating around aimlessly for days, I was picked up by our friends here. Survivors from our little incursion. I spoke to Shaw, and he made me an offer I couldn't refuse," smiling, Page kneels down and puts his hand out toward me. "I can talk to him, and he can do the same for you. We were friends once Ethan, I don't want to see us on different sides when the revolution begins."

I look in his hand, seeing enough Medi-Gel to close the bullet wound in my stomach and keep me alive. "You expect me… to believe that? Haven't you seen what these people are capable of? I have, slaughtering innocent people, not just non-humans, but the humans they claim to put first," coughing up more blood, I can barely keep my eyes open. "They're nothing more than murderers… and now you're part of that. You're a goddamn traitor, and you're spitting on the memory of our team, our friends, who died because of them." Broken and battered, my voice cracks and tears make their way down the side of my face.

Page moves his hand back and puts the Medi-Gel back in his pack. "They died because they were incompetent, I thought you were different," looking at me with sadness in his eyes, Page somberly stands up and begins walking out of the room, he stops and turns his head to face me, Ashe, and Selene. "Guess I was wrong." Nodding to one of the mercs, he walks out and the door closes behind him, even while I'm bleeding out, I can still hear the sadness and regret in his voice.

The three mercs still in the room all take out their weapons and aim at us, I look at Ashe and knowing this is it for us, close my eyes and hold her hand. You know, they always say that in your final moments that your life flashes before your eyes, but the only thing on my mind are things that I could've done. Things I regret not doing, the people I could've saved.

Jolting, I feel myself move across the floor, slamming into an adjacent wall, my eyes still closed, I hear gunfire and shouting. Three loud thuds are all I hear and when I open my eyes, the mercs lay lifeless on the ground with Selene standing over them, weapon in hand. She rushes over to me, and she and Ashe try to lift me to my feet, but I'm little more than dead weight. _I'll only slow them down._

"Get out of here… just leave me." Lying on the ground, leaning against a locker, barely able to speak, I motion toward the door and tell them to go.

"No! Ethan we've gotten this far and I'm not leaving you here!" Ashe… stubborn as always, yells at me with an ocean of tears rolling down her cheek.

"C'mon don't be stupid Miller, your map says the escape pods are just outside we can make it if we try!" Selene, still trying to save me, attempts to lift me, but fails to get me off the ground.

I grab her hand and she kneels back down with tears of her own welling up in her eyes. "It's better this way, you can do what I can't. Get. Her. Out, of here." Gritting my teeth, I wince as I try to move. "Find… Captain Michaelson, he'll help you."

Reluctantly, she nods and squeezes my hand. "You have my word… you fucking idiot." She moves her mandibles to resemble a smile as the tears begin to fall.

I thank her and turn my head to face Ashe, who is looking at me, still crying. I cup my hand on her cheek and wipe away the tears. "No tears Blue. I know we weren't together long, but it was the best time of my life," fighting as best I can to say what I need to say, as my arms go limp. "I...love you." my hands fall to the ground, my limbs go numb, and my vision fades.

Looking around, I see little more than a constant array of blinding white lights.

"Where the hell am I?" I'm not sure how to describe this feeling, it's almost like I'm nowhere, but yet… everywhere at the same time. Looking down at myself, I see that my wounds have healed, I'm not wearing my beaten and battered Alliance uniform. Instead, I'm wearing an all white jumpsuit. _Weird, how the hell did I get in these clothes?_

"Somewhere you aren't supposed to be." a voice calls out to me, whipping my head around I'm trying to find whoever is talking to me but… nothing. "Over here Ethan."

I turn my head to see whoever it is that's talking, and I'm speechless as to who I find. "Dad?" Gasping, I take a step back and try to comprehend what I'm looking at.

"You're not supposed to be here, not yet." I can see him begin to fade away. Instictively, I reach out to him.

"Wait, can't we just talk?! What is this place?! Dad?!" Looking down, I see that I'm starting to fade as well and before I know it, the world goes dark again.

I open my eyes and I'm greeted by bright light that almost blinds me, when my vision adjusts I can see that I'm on the Manhattan, or in her infirmary at least. _How the hell?_ Looking around, I don't see anyone around me until I look over and see Dr Koslov's desk to see him talking to someone. I try and sit up, but just trying feels like my chest is being ripped open. The groan I make is loud enough to cause Dr Koslov to run over and put his hand on my chest.

"Just waking up and you're already trying to get out of bed, if I didn't know any better I'd say you enjoyed hurting yourself," smiling, he eases me back into the bed, it's not as comfortable as the one in my bunk, but it's a hell of a lot more so than what I've grown accustomed to. "But at least you're awake." He places his hand on my shoulder and walks toward his desk. He puts me through basic sensory tests to make sure I'm at 100%. Koslov's voice isn't what I'd call comforting, but right now he might as well be singing to me, sounding damn near angelic.

I feel something squeeze my right hand and instinctively I look, and I see who Dr Koslov was talking to. "How are you feeling Hero?" Ashe looks at me with tears rolling down her face. She takes my hand and puts it up to her cheek. I wipe her tears with my thumb and smile.

"Never better, are you okay?" she nods and stands up to kiss my forehead. "That all I get?" jokingly, I pucker my lips, Ashe sits back down and giggles. I scoff and look as she has a massive grin sprawled across her face. "I'll go ahead and assume you're fine, how did I even get here anyway?"

"You can thank Lt Martinez for that, he's been working day and night to try and find you," Captain Michaelson walks into the infirmary and stands beside my bed. "You have no idea how glad I am to see you alive son." he places a hand on my shoulder and Dr Koslov walks back over to the bed and does another damn visual test. He gestures to Captain Michaelson to speak over near his desk, leaving Ashe and I to talk alone. It turns out the 'unknown vessel' that Shaw mentioned, was the Manhattan, who had tracked me to his ship. Luckily they got me out before they did any serious damage.

After a few minutes of talking to Dr Koslov, the Captain walks back and sits across from Ashe. He tells me that my wounds were a lot worse than I thought, malnourishment from only having enough food to barely keep me alive, coupled with internal bleeding from the constant beatings I was given. Apparently it was so bad that if they found me even a few minutes later… we wouldn't be having this conversation. _Didn't realize it was that bad. Well, I guess being shot didn't help any. Miracle I even survived_.

"How long was I out?" curious, I look at each of them, but I'm greeted with only saddened expressions.

"Ethan, they found us 4 weeks ago." after a small eternity, Ashe finally breaks the silence. It turns out that a lot has happened since they found me, Captain Michaelson tried to get Selene to stay aboard as a permanent member of the crew but she said she needed to get back to her people. _Damn, it would've been nice to have her here_.

"Director Daava hasn't necessarily been understanding either, she's been contacting me everyday, asking if you're awake, then disconnecting immediately." Dr Koslov's hands the Captain a data pad, sounding almost annoyed at the Director.

Director Misàn Daava is in command of the UGDF, she's not known for being benevolent in any way. She has a reputation for being… less than hospitable, seeing as she used to be the Captain of the Destiny Ascension it isn't surprising.

"You'd think she'd be at least slightly worried about her best ground team leader," Captain Michaelson chimes in while looking at the data pad Koslov handed him. "She said that she wanted your report as soon you were awake." gritting his teeth, he hands me the data pad.

I let go of Ashe's hand, much to her dismay, and begin typing. I put everything I know in my report, everything from my capture, to stupidly giving them information, that fucking traitor Page, to waking up in the infirmary.

Upon finishing my report and giving the data pad back, I begin the arduous process of physical therapy, wanting to get back on my feet as soon as possible. Taking almost a month, and with a lot of help from Freddy and Ashe. Freddy especially helping any way he can when Ashe works in the infirmary with Dr Koslov. She's taken to ship life pretty quickly, I'm glad Koslov took her as his assistant. Now she doesn't have to worry about me as much. They both thought it would take a lot longer considering the extent of my injuries, but I don't have time to sit around and do nothing while Shaw, and that damn traitor Page are both still alive.

After I finish my physical therapy, finally being able to walk, and run on my own, I end up resorting to my old routine, waking up as early as possible, running a mile in the hangar, and making sure my hand to hand skills stay sharp by hitting the punching bag in the Manhattan's rec room.

"Don't you ever take a break?" Freddy walks in holding two bottles of water and hands one to me.

"We get it, you're basically Superman, come one Ethan you're making me look bad." laughing, he sits down on one of the benches.

"Can't help it, I have a reputation to keep you know?" out of breath and sweating from head to toe, I take a sip out of the bottle and lean against the wall next to the bag. "What are you doing up so early?"

"Trying to find you." Freddy takes a sip from his bottle. "You want to talk about it?"

"What's left to say? I thought I told you and others everything."

"That's not what I meant, I heard you knew of of them… the people that captured you."

I set the bottle down on the bench and put my attention back to the bag. "Yeah, I knew him, but it doesn't matter now."

"Come on man, don't give me that. He was your friend once, there has to be at least some part of you that still cares about him." Freddy stands up and walks toward me. "Listen, you know I'm here if you want to talk."

"Yeah, well I don't. So if you don't mind I could use some space." _Little harsh, but it's true. I don't want to talk about it. Yes, he was my friend once. Now, he's spitting on the memory of the people who died to protect the both of us, I swear on my life that if I get the chance… I'll kill him_.

"Okay, I understand. I'll leave you to it." Freddy stands up and walks out. His voice taking a saddened tone as he leaves. I take a few more hits on the bag until I lose my temper and punch it as hard as I can before grabbing the bottle on the bench and throwing it across the room.

"Fuck!" I walk over to the bench and grab the bottle before walking out of the rec room toward the showers.

I exit the showers and someone tells me that Captain Michaelson wants to speak with me. I make my way to his quarters and pass Ashe as she goes to the infirmary to see Dr Koslov. We exchange a few smiles and I walk toward Michaelson's quarters. He lets me in and sits me down at the table next to his desk.

"I just got a call from Director Daava, she wants to speak with you as soon as possible. Beckett is plotting a course for the Pillar as we speak."

The Pillar is a space station floating where the Citadel used to be and is serving as the main HQ for the Council and the UGDF. It's not as grand as the Citadel was, but it serves its purpose as a stand in until the Citadel is fully repaired. It has three towers on the end, representing the three pillars of the UGDF, Unity, Determination, and Resolve.

"Why does she want to speak to me? I thought I sent my report?" _I could've sworn I sent it through as soon as I finished it_.

"She said she needs to speak to you in person."

"In person? Must be important then?" _I doubt she'd ask to see me in person for nothing. She could easily just Holo-Call_.

"The Turians finished the repairs on the Mass Relay in that system, so that buys you a few hours before being thrown to the dogs." a slight chuckle escapes as Captain Michaelson starts toward the elevator.

"Wolves in this case." I mutter under my breath as I head my quarters. I inform Freddy and the others on the situation. The atmosphere is… well, more than tense between Freddy and I since I yelled at him this morning.

Ashe walks in shortly after they leave. "Hey, are you okay? You look tense," _Always worrying about me, even when she doesn't have to. It's one of the many things I love about her_. She walks up behind me and wraps her arms around my back.

I grab her hand and smile. _I love the warm feeling I get when I'm around her. It makes me feel safe. I don't think she knows about what happened, maybe I should tell her_. "Frederick told me something happened between you two this morning." ' _Course he did_.

"I was in the rec room, and… I'm not gonna lie, it's my fault. He was just trying to help and I yelled at him," sighing, I fumble through the words. "I know I should try and talk to him… but I just don't know what to say. He's my best friend, I don't want to lose him."

"You won't, just talk to him, you two are inseparable, he won't let something like that come between you and you shouldn't either." _S_ _he always knows just what to say._ I nod and she heads for the door while I finish getting ready.

Docking at the Pillar, which is a needlessly arduous process in my opinion, myself , the rest of Jericho, and Captain Michaelson are escorted to the director's office by two Salarian guards. They wait outside while the door opens and we walk inside.

"Ah, Commander Morris, just who I wanted to see, I've been looking forward to this." Director Daava sits at her desk, her dark blue, almost purple skin is outlined by silver facial markings akin to Asari.

"Director Daava, it's a pleasure to see you again." a little annoyed that she still doesn't remember my name, I try and keep a respectful tone.

She looks at me almost annoyed, then shakes her head and rolls her eyes. "Whatever, you and I need to have a chat, I read your report and to be honest, I'm not happy," her tone becoming more serious with each word. "In your report, it says that you not only know nothing about the mercenaries that captured you, but you willingly gave them information as to why you and your team were on the colony I sent you to."

"That's true, but only becau-"

"I don't care why you told them, by giving them even the slightest bit of information you aided the enemy, making you a traitor. So as of this moment I am removing you from the service of the SSV Manhattan and recommending you be tried, court marshalled and discharged from the Alliance and the UGDF."

"Bullshit, do you even understand what this man has been through?! He's lucky to even be alive!" I turn to see Freddy standing next to me with an angry expression on his face.

"I understand the circumstances of his situation but that does not negate his actions. Now watch your tone Lt or you will be in the same boat as your Commander." Director Daava begins gritting her teeth at Freddy.

"If you want to get rid of him, you're getting rid of the one man whose been carrying the UGDF on his back since it was founded. He has fought for this cause, he bled for this cause… he almost died for this cause and you're just gonna spit in his face?! If he's out… than so am I." _F_ _ucking idiot, he's throwing away the best opportunity he'll ever get. I have to stop him_.

"You may as well put the Manhattan in the same boat." before I can say anything, Captain Michaelson and the rest of Jericho step forward and stand beside me. _What the..._

Infuriated, the veins in Daava's neck begin to protrude through her skin. A long, almost deafening silence takes over the room. "You're lucky I can't afford to lose any ships. But let me get make this very clear, one fuck up and you're out on your asses." clearly angry, Daava breaks the silence.

"Thank you for your kindness Director, have a pleasant day." Captain Michaelson ushers the us toward the door.

I'm the last one out but… "Oh yeah, one more thing."

"And what might that be?"

"My name is Miller." _I'll make this up to you guys… I promise_.

Well, if you made it this far, first of all, thank you I know this is one of if not the longest chapter I've written, but I also hope you like this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Also, I know, two chapters in one week, not a common occurrence. As always leave a comment if you enjoyed and please visit the Mass Effect Fanfiction writers page on Facebook, it's filled with all kinds of amazing people who inspire me to keep writing.


	9. Chapter 8

Okay, before we get into the chapter I just have to say thank you to all the people in the Mass Effect FanFiction Writers page on Facebook. I've been dealing with a family emergency and they all took the time to wish me the best so this chapter is for them, now we can see the aftermath of chapter 7

Walking out of Daava's office, I try to catch up to Captain Michaelson and the others. "Wait… Captain I-"

"Let me stop you there son, if you thought for even a second I was gonna let her do that to you, then you're insane," Michaelson very matter of factly, cuts me off. "Director Daava was more than out of line and I wasn't just gonna sit and watch as you got thrown to the wolves," Stopping,Michaelson sends Freddy and the rest of Jericho ahead. "I know you don't like being praised, but this is something you need to hear. I may be the Manhattan's Captain, but she is **your** ship. I haven't seen anyone make as much of an impact in such a short amount of time as you. Lt Martinez wasn't the only person to have sleepless nights while you were missing, in fact… most of us didn't sleep. It doesn't take a genius to see that you're the heart and soul of this crew, I'm damn proud to call you my second."

Second? Does he mean…? "Sir, you can't possibly mean what I think." fumbling with my words, I try and make sense of what I just heard. I still don't know how to comprehend it. Heart and soul of the Manhattan… it just doesn't make sense to me, I've only been a member of her crew for a few years, nowhere near as long as some of the others. I doubt I've had as much of an 'impact' as Michaelson put it, but listening to the certainty in his voice, I can tell he meant every word of it.

"Well, I do. I spoke with Dr Koslov, he decided to step down as XO in favor of you, and don't even try to say no because that's not an option. Also, before you ask, this doesn't mean you won't be on the ground as much, I meant it when I said you're my best ground team leader so that's where I need you, this just means you'll have more pull as far as authority."

"I guess I don't have a choice then." Sounds like he's been planning this for a while. Chuckling at the thought, the Captain and I catch up to Freddy and the others, who are all talking to a Salarian, and once the Salarian sees Michaelson and I, he rushes toward us.

"Captain Michaelson, I am a representative of Councilor Valern, he wishes to speak with you right away," Leading us toward an elevator, the Salarian stops Jericho and myself from entering. "Authorized personnel only, please step aside."

"He is my XO, anything the counselor has to say to me, he can say to the Commander." Gesturing for me to step inside, the Salarian steps aside as I walk in.

I see various looks of surprise across all of Jericho's faces as the elevator door closes.

 _Well that's one way for them to find out._

Once the elevator door opens, the Salarian escorts us to the end of a long hallway. "Councilor Valern is waiting just inside."

The door opens and we see a massive office space, with a large window behind the desk overlooking the trading hub and marketplace just below us, but we don't see the counselor sitting at his desk. I look around the office to see statues lining the wall, most are of famous Salarians, except for one, inside of a glass case was a marble bust of some Drell I've never heard of, I walk up to it and get a closer look and as I get close enough to make out the face of it, I hear a voice call out from behind me.

"Ah, I see you've found my bust," I turn around to see Councilor Valern entering from an adjacent room, he walks over and stands next to me. "This is my favorite piece." I can almost see a smile form on his face.

"Who is he?" Still looking at the bust, I take in just how well made it is, there isn't a single chip or imperfection that I can see.

Councilor Valern puts his hands behind his back, "His name was Thane, during Cerberus' attack on the Citadel a few years ago, they sent an assassin to kill me. If it wasn't for Thane he would have succeeded, sadly he didn't survive the fight and died of his wounds. I had this made so I can honor his memory." Sadness echoing in his voice, he turns and walks over to his desk.

"You said you wanted to see me Counselor?" Captain Michaelson thankfully breaks the silence as Councilor Valern sits at his desk.

"I did, I wanted to talk about these mercenaries your Commander wrote of in his report. It says that these are the same mercenaries that hijacked an Alliance ship a few years ago. Speaking of your Commander, I take it this is he?"

He gestures to me.

"Yes Counselor, he spent a number of weeks in their custody." Michaelson gestures toward me to step forward.

"It's true I spent time with them, but I don't think I'll be much help. They mostly just kept me in one room. The only thing I know about them is that their pro-human, bordering on fanatic. That, and their leader Victor Shaw is a certifiable madman." Even saying his name causes me to grit my teeth.

"Ah yes, Victor Shaw, I've heard the name before. Before Cerberus' disbanding, he served as one of the Illusive man's most trusted advisors, he orchestrated the attack on Omega. Now it seems he's taken on a new endeavor. I had my suspicions he was in charge of this new mercenary organization, but didn't know for sure until your report was put on my desk, now that I do know I had a few of my contacts look into it, they learned the bulk of his forces are taken from CAT-6, the 'orginization' made up of mostly former Alliance."

"Makes sense, considering they're mostly human, and with obvious military training, but there's one thing I just can't wrap my head around, Shaw always talked about putting humanity first, but the colony my team and I went to was mostly human, as well as the ship he hijacked, the Ticonderoga, was heading for Earth." It just doesn't make sense, if he's so pro-human, why attack a human colony, or Earth for that matter?

"That mining colony wasn't just a human settlement, there were a few Batarians, as well as a few Salarians living there. Most likely the humans were caught in the crossfire." Rubbing his chin, Michaelson begins pacing.

"But that doesn't explain why he attacked the Ticonderoga. Her crew was Alliance, it doesn't make sense." Scratching my head, I lean against the wall.

"Maybe that's it, he attacked the ship **because** it was Alliance, Shaw used to be a high ranking Cerberus member so he naturally has a lot of hatred for the Alliance, and that colony was resting on the borders of the Terminus systems with Alliance personnel living among them. It's entirely possible this 'revolution' of his begins with the death of humanity's only military force.Effectively taking away their only weapon." Valern leans forward and the same Salarian that escorted the Captain and I walks in with the Asari and Turian Counselors.

"Valern, we need to talk." Tevos, the Asari councilor, walks over to Valern's desk and whispers something in his ear.

"You're serious?!" Valern exclaims after Tevos steps back. Whatever she said must've been serious. "Apologies but I'm afraid I have to cut this short, please escort the Captain and his Commander safely back to their ship." His voice now taking in the more calculated tone for a Salarian, Valern orders his assistant to escort us back to the Manhattan. But before we can leave, something outside of the large window behind Valern's desk catches my eye. Shaw, not the real Shaw, but a hologram of the man appears, replacing Avina at all of her terminals, including the one in Valern's office.

"Good people of the Pillar, can I have your attention please? I have something of… an announcement to make. You see, there is a cancer living among us, a parasite, festering and feeding off of our very lives. This cancer, is the collection of non-humans in our galaxy, aliens taking away what is rightfully ours, they watched from the safety of their Citadel as we bled, and died protecting our home, it wasn't the Salarians, the Asari, or even the Turians who kept the Reapers from eradicating us all. It. Was. Humanity. The Alliance is now spitting in the faces of those brave humans who died during that war by participating in this insult, known as the UGDF. I say it's time for the Alliance to be shown the door and have new leadership for humanity. But to rebuild, you must first destroy what is already there. Who am I you ask? I am the moth drawn to an open flame, humanity's shining beacon of hope in the dark pits of despair the Alliance created for us. They are so focused on the web of lies they continue to spin, that they don't notice the spider looming above their heads, just waiting for it's moment, to strike."

An explosion echoes throughout the marketplace, coming from the Alliance HQ, the people below begin screaming and running away as Pillar Security takes charge and escorts them away from the flames bursting out. Michaelson looks at me, and taking the hint I sprint out of the office and make my way down to the marketplace.

"Freddy, grab Shy and the others and help Pillar Security with the civvies! I'm heading to Alliance HQ!"

Running past Pillar Security in the marketplace, I can barely see in front of me as the smoke bellows out of Alliance HQ, I hear ambulance sirens and scattered shouting as paramedics begin loading the injured onto gurneys and speed off toward the hospital, I see people sitting, blankly staring at the ground trying to comprehend what just happened. Mark Twain once said that humans were the most evil beings in existence because of our sense of right and wrong, a predator in the wild sees no evil doing as he hunts his prey, in their eyes it's eat or starve. But this? Whoever willingly does this to innocent people, are no better than murderers, yeah, I've killed people, but only those who deserve it.

"Is anyone still alive in there?!" I stop and ask a paramedic as he's loading someone onto a gurney.

"No idea, but if there are we can't get to them. The entire second floor is scorched and the smokes too thick to see through let alone be able to breathe. Listen she needs help fast and the closest hospital isn't to far." The paramedic, a Turian male, loads the gurney with the injured woman into the ambulance and speeds away.

"Please, someone help! My husbands still in there!" A younger human man begins yelling, once he sees me he begins running toward me and grabs my arm. "Please, he's all I have left." Tears rolling down his face, practically begging he again asks for help.

 _I have to help him…_

"Where was he when you last saw him?"

"I-I don't know we were just-"

"Hey, focus man, slow down and tell me where you last saw him."

After a few seconds, he slows his breathing and looks a bit more calm. "We were in the administration office on the second floor."

 _Dammit, the paramedic said the smoke was thick on the second floor. I look at the window where the administration office is. If I go in, there's a really big chance I won't come back out… but I can't just leave if there's a chance he's alive. What if I was in this guy's shoes and it was Ashe inside the building?_ "Listen, I can't promise anything, but I'll try to get him out."

The man's eyes light up and he hugs me. "Thank you! You don't know how much this means to me! His name is Jeremiah."

Once he let's go I walk toward the building covering my face from the heat coming out from the fire. Once I walk in the heat hits me like a bullet, I pull my shirt over my nose and mouth to help me breathe, after walking past the reception desk, I see all of the people who were caught in the blast, their bodies turn to ash as I walk past them, the smoke is almost too much to handle on my feet, so I get on my hands and knees and start crawling toward the stairwell at the back of the building. _God, I can barely breathe. This smoke is too damn thick to see through. Just up the stairs, come on Ethan, just keep going._

I reach the top of the stairwell and keep crawling toward the administration office when I hear a faint voice calling out to me. "Hello?! Tobias is that you?! I'm stuck, I can't move!" Obviously scared, I can hear faint sobbing behind his words.

"Jeremiah?! Hold on I'm almost there!" Barely able to yell with all the smoke in my face I make it to the admin office and crawl through the door.

"Who are you?!" He yells at me as I'm crawling toward him. I look up and see him pinned under something, I can't make out what it is through the smoke.

"Don't worry about that, we just need to get you out of here!" I put my hands on whatever has him pinned and start lifting it off of him, but it's too heavy so I can't move it. "I'm gonna need your help, think you can?"

He nods and puts his hands on the object, ready to push it off.

"Okay, one, two, three!" After struggling for a bit we both manage to get it off of him just enough so he can crawl out. I put his arm around my shoulder and lift him up, I rip a piece of my shirt off and put it over his mouth for him to hold. We start crawling back toward the door but the ceiling caves in just outside, trapping us inside the office. _Shit, now what?_

We crawl back over to the window and look down at the ground below us, I put my hand on the glass and notice the cracks going along the length of it. "Hold on, I'm gonna have to set you down, the glass is almost broken, we're gonna have to get out this way." Looking around the room for something to break the window with, I set Jeremiah down against the wall. After rushing around the room, I walk over to the desk and see the chair knocked down, without thinking, I grab the chair and throw it at the window, it shatters and the chair flies outside. _I hope that didn't hit anyone._ I run toward the window and shout at the people below us that we need to jump down. I run back and grab Jeremiah and get to the window to see everyone standing below us ready to catch us with a large tarp.

"You ready?!" A little more than worried that tarp won't hold us, I look at Jeremiah and see the concern on his face as well. "Hey, I know you're scared, trust me I am too, we're gonna have to go one at a time alright? You first." After a few seconds, he closes his eyes and leaps toward the crowd and lands in the center of the tarp. Waiting until they grab Jeremiah and pull him off, I look down. _Leap of faith._ I jump toward the crowd of people and land on the tarp as Jeremiah is being loaded onto a gurney, as I get back to my feet a few paramedics run to me and hand me an oxygen mask.

I look over as Jeremiah is being loaded into the ambulance and he smiles, smiling and waving at him as the doors are closed and the ambulance takes off toward the hospital.

"Commander!" Out of the corner of my eye, I see Shy running toward me. "Are you okay? I saw the whole thing from down here."

"She speaks," Shy normally keeps to herself, hence the nickname, so hearing her speak, let alone yell is a bit out of the norm. "Yeah, I'm fine. Where's everyone else?"

"Back on the ship, Captain Michaelson told me to find you and bring you back," Stopping next to me, Shy takes a moment to catch her breath before extending a hand to help me to my feet. "He said he wanted to speak to you as soon as possible."

Figured as much, considering what just happened. I take Shy's hand and once I'm on my feet, we begin walking toward the docking bay where the Manhattan is. "Let's not waste time then."

After of few moments of silence as we walk. "Is it true?" Shy breaks the silence.

"Is what true?"

"What the Captain said, about you taking over from Dr Koslov as XO." _Well, I guess I was gonna have to answer this question sooner or later._

"Yeah, and before you ask, Koslov already knows, from what I understand it was his idea. Don't know if it's true that's just my assumption."

"Well, I'm-"

"Please don't, I already know what you're gonna say, the last thing I want to hear is 'you deserve it'. I just want to get back to the ship, and get some rest," Slightly upping my pace, I continue walking to the docking bay. I turn around to see Shy looking downtrodden, staring at the ground as she walks. _Dammit._ "Look, it's not like I'm ungrateful, or I'm upset for being complimented, but after the day I just had, I just want some rest."

Shy shakes her head. "That's not it, it's Nelson. When you got captured, he felt responsible. He felt like if he wasn't in that tower you wouldn't have had to wait for him before closing the door to the service tunnel and you wouldn't have been caught. He blames himself, always saying that he wouldn't be able to live with himself if we didn't find you."

"How do you know this?" Stopping, I look at Shy.

"People think that because I don't talk much that I don't notice things. I overheard him one night talking to the Lt."

I nod. "Don't worry, I'll talk to him."

Shy looks at me surprised. "You will?"

"Why wouldn't I? I can't just sit by and do nothing, knowing how he's feeling. Listen I may be your Commander, but Jericho isn't just a squad, we're a team. Even more than that… we're family."

Shy smiles and nods as we continue toward the docking bay.

Once aboard the Manhattan, I tell Shy I'll talk to Nelson after I speak to the Captain. We board the elevator and I ask her not to tell Ashe about me jumping out of a burning building for obvious reasons.

After we exit we split away from each other and I head to Michaelson's quarters. Once I enter I see the Captain talking to Councilor Valern over holo-call.

"I don't need to tell you how important this is Captain."

"I understand, I'll inform the crew," The call ends and Michaelson turns around and sees me. "Ah, there you are. I have good news, Councilor Valern just gave us the green light to go after Shaw."

"You're kidding." Surprised, I can barely keep myself from smiling after hearing the news. _Finally, we can get some payback._

"I'm not, it's time we show that bastard what happens when you fuck with the UGDF," He sighs and leans against his desk. "Just one problem, we don't know where he is. Which doesn't present a lot of options."

 _Damn, well that puts a damper on things… wait_.

"What about Omega? Shaw used to be Cerberus, he orchestrated their occupation during the war. We could ask Aria."

"Aria? As in… Aria T'loak, what's to stop her from killing us on the spot?" Understandably, Michaelson is skeptical.

"She hates Cerberus just as much, if not more so than we do. Cerberus must've had a plethora of files left on the station. If we tell her who we're after, there's a chance, albeit a small one that she'll help."

Michaelson ponders for a moment, rubbing his chin and muttering under his breath. After a few minutes, he looks at me. "Okay, I'll trust you on this. I'll head up to the bridge and tell Beckett to set course for Omega."

Chapter 8 ladies and gents. Originally I didn't think I was going to finish this chapter. I've been dealing with a family emergency and haven't had any actual time to write anything. So you can imagine my surprise, as well as my enjoyment,when I find out things have calmed down enough for me to start writing again. Thank you all for reading and please leave a review. Your feedback means the world to me and inspires me to keep going.


	10. One shot-Ashe

So, I'm thinking that after ever say… two chapters I'll do something similar to this, a one-shot from a different point of view so we can see the aftermath of the events of the previous two chapters. Let me know if you guys think this is something you'd enjoy, this way you won't have to wait as long in between chapters. This one is from the point of view of Ashe and is inspired by a comic thread on deviant art.

Standing in the Med-bay, Ashe washes her hands in the sink, wishing she could take a shower and wash off the grime and stresses of the day. She has been assisting Dr Koslov aboard the Manhattan for a few months now and has grown to care for the crew as both Ethan and the good Doctor do. Drying her hands using the air driers next to the sink, she begins to worry about Ethan, she heard an explosion and Captain Michaelson ordered Dr Koslov to assist with the civilians and she hasn't heard from Ethan since he left. As she begins walking toward the Dr's desk she stumbles over and falls down.

"Dammit, you'd think that after 3 years I'd be used to this." Ever since the attack on the Citadel, Ashe has had to use her biotics in tandem with the cybernetics in her legs to be able to walk, but occasionally she'll forget.

"Asheyale, are you alright?!" Dr Koslov walks into the Med-bay and upon seeing her on the ground, instinctively runs over to help her up.

 _Always the gentleman._ Ashe thinks as Koslov helps her to her feet. "I'm fine Victor thank you, just, thinking," She looks at her legs and upon placing a hand on her knee, begins to recall why her legs are like this to begin with. Recalling the events of that day in her head. "Are they back yet?"

Dr Koslov nods his head. "Jericho is in the hanger bay, and the Commander is speaking with Captain in his quarters."

Relieved, Ashe sighs and thanks Athame that everyone is okay, after not hearing from Ethan once the explosion hit she was beginning to think the worst.

Ashe takes a second to calm down and Koslov helps her to her feet, he turns on the vid screen and a news broadcast covers the explosion on the Pillar.

"Pillar Security reports that the cause of the explosion was an unknown Human assailant who hacked into every Avina terminal on the station. Which begs the question. Just who is this unknown human? What is his plan? Why does he hold so much hatred for Non-Humans." The Asari news anchor leans forward in her chair. "This reporter was on the scene near Alliance HQ when another unknown Human male ran straight into the building, while it was still set ablaze, just a few short moments after, this footage shows what followed."

The broadcast cuts to a feed from a news camera, it pans up and shows two human males climbing out of the second story window.

"Ethan?" Ashe's brow begins to furrow and she gasps as she sees him jump onto a large tarp the crowd below is holding. "I swear it's like he doesn't even think of his own well being." Visibly upset, she begins pacing around the Med-bay trying not to just storm into the Captain's quarters and give Miller a piece of her mind.

"Well, you know the Commander, he sees someone who needs help he just can't stop himself." Koslov leans on his desk and adjusts his glasses.

"I know that, but running into a burning building?" Ashe stops and places her hand on her head.

"I'm sure if you ask him why, you will be satisfied with his answer. You usually are," Koslov looks out of the window and sees Miller walking past, and smiles. "Speaking of which."

Instinctively, Ashe walks out to confront him.

"Ethan!" Almost yelling, her voice making it clear that she's upset.

Miller, stopping in his tracks almost like a deer in headlights, slowly turns around. "H-Hey Blue, I'm back… and I'm okay."

Once she sees his face her anger fades as she realizes that she's just happy he's alive. She walks up and punches him in the arm. "That, is for running into a burning building." She turns around and walks toward their quarters, she hears Miller as he follows her.

The door opens and she walks inside. "Wait, Blue I can explain-"

The second the door closes Ashe grabs his shirt and kisses him. "That's for coming back," Speaking softly as she pulls back. "I still don't know why you did that, but as long as you come back to me I don't care."

Miller pulls back and cups her face in his hands. "I'll always come back, no matter what." He pulls her toward him and they embrace.

Hours go by and now Ashe is lying down next to Miller as he sleeps. She looks at all of the scars he has accumulated over his short life. She thinks about how her time with him won't last very long since the Asari live longer than Humans. The very thought of losing him hurts her, but she has accepted that and plans on making her time with him special. She runs her thumb along the scar on his left eye, cupping his face in her hand. She smiles as she looks at his sleeping face, her eyes make their way to his chest. Looking at the burns, she remembers what he said: "I'll always come back, no matter what."

"Just be sure you make good on that promise Hero."

Well as I said I hope you guys like the idea of me doing these little one shots every couple of chapters since their a bit easier to right and you won't have to wait as long. As always be sure to leave a review if you enjoyed and check out the Mass Effect Fanfiction writers page on Facebook.


	11. Chapter 9

"Can I talk to you for a second?" Grabbing Shy by her arm, I pull her away from the others in a corner near the back of the hangar bay. "Didn't I tell you not to tell Ashe about me going into going into a building that, may or not have been on fire?" Doing my best to keep my voice at whisper I confront her about how Ashe knew about me going into Alliance HQ to save that guy's husband.

"I didn't have to, there were cameras everywhere… you didn't see them?" She points to the vid screen next to the elevator and tunes it to a news station covering the explosion, the feed cuts to camera footage of me jumping off of the second story balcony and onto the tarp the crowd below us found. "Don't worry, you can apologise by talking to Nelson." Very matter-of-factly and oddly uncharacteristically, Shy points me towards Nelson who is inspecting his Viper, and talking to Freddy.

"Yeah, you're right." Exhaling, I walk over to the both of them and ask Freddy to give us a minute.

"Something up Commander?" Wiping the sweat from his brow, Nelson looks at me puzzled.

"No, I was just wanting to talk if you had time."

"I've got the time, what do you want to talk about." Looking visibly nervous, Nelson sets his gun down.

"I'm not sure how to bring this up so I'm just gonna say it. Shy told me you blame yourself for me being caught." Leaning on the workbench, I cross my arms.

After a few moments of shocked expressions and awkward silence, Nelson finally breaks it.

"Dammit Eva," Sighing, he sets his Viper down and stands up. "I told her not to tell you."

"Well, she did and there's nothing either of us can do to change it, I'm not just gonna sit back and do nothing knowing something like this, so we need to talk." I grab his arm as he tries to walk away.

"Let go." Softly, he practically begs me.

"I can't do that." My voice low and coarse, I make sure he understands.

"Let. Go." Gritting his teeth, he glares at me, with daggers in his eyes.

"Or what? Are you gonna hit me? Do it. Because I'm not letting go."

Without hesitating, he swings at me. I duck and land a punch to his jaw. He stumbles back, and tackles me to the ground, I wrap my arm around his head and lock my fingers, I wrap my legs around his midsection and tighten my grip.

After a few seconds, he taps my arm and I loosen my grip enough for him to get free. I stand up and try to help him to his feet. He slaps my hand away.

"You want to be like that, fine. But we're not done here."

"What do you want me to say?! That if I wasn't on that fucking tower you wouldn't have had to go through weeks of questioning and abuse?! Is that what you want?!" Screaming, he wipes the blood from his mouth and stands up. "Fine, it's my fault you got caught, it's my fault you had to go through that. If it wasn't for-"

"Enough, I told you to get on that tower, and you followed orders. The only one at fault here is me. It's my fault I got caught, it's my fault I was questioned, everything that happened is on me and me alone."

"But-"

"Don't, if I was given the option I'd do it again, because if I hadn't thrown you in that tunnel you would've been caught too, and I wasn't about to let that happen. You and the others aren't just my team, you're my friends. The thought of any of you going through what I did… I can't bare it, so don't even think for a second that if it came to it I wouldn't gladly lay down my life for any of you."

"You mean that?" Nelson sits back down.

"Every word."

Nelson nods. "Alright… I'm sorry."

I walk up to him and place my hand on his shoulder. "You have nothing to apologise for, not even the half-assed punch you threw."

Nelson's head whips around and faces me. "It wasn't half-assed." Sounding almost offended, he tries (and fails) to defend himself.

"I saw it coming a mile away, you wind back too much." Smiling I take a step back.

"Are you serious?" His thick British accent becoming more prominent, he looks at his hand, then back up at me.

I put my hand out and put my thumb and index finger close together to signify 'a little bit' and walk away laughing.

I walk toward the elevator when the ships intercom sounds on. "Attention crew this is your Captain speaking, we are approaching Omega. As this station is known for being hostile towards any significant military force I am ordering that you all remain on high alert, there's no telling what kind of greeting we'll receive. Jericho team report to the hangar bay for briefing." I walk back toward the workbench where Nelson is, after a few moments the others join us and I we discuss our plan.

The shuttle ride towards the station is interrupted by a Battarian coming onto the vid screen. "Attention unknown shuttle, you are entering airspace owned by Aria T'loak, state your business or we will open fire." The Battarian's voice is rough and scratched, his four eyes glaring at us through the screen.

"This is Commander Ethan Miller of the UGDF, we have urgent business with Aria." Taking off my helmet, I step forward.

The Battarian grimaces and accentuates the many scars scattered along his face. "No outsiders, especially not the UGDF. Turn your shuttle around and leave, or else." Shortly after, the vid screen shuts down.

Well, that could've gone better. Sighing, I turn around to face my team, who all have puzzled looks.

"Well, he seems nice. What's the plan?" Freddy, looking almost amused, takes off his helmet, followed by the rest of Jericho.

"Well, for starters we have to get past him to see Aria," Wiping away sweat, I set my helmet down. I look at all the troubled expressions that I'm greeted with. "Yeah yeah, I know, easier said than done, but we don't have any other option. Here's the plan, Davis and I will go out alone, the rest of you stay on the shuttle until we get past them. Don't worry, we're not going in guns blazing, luckily I'm a master negotiator." The troubled expressions are replaced with grins and snickers. _Something I said?_

"You're not a master negotiator, you couldn't negotiate your way out of a traffic ticket." Freddy, looking a bit too pleased with himself, starts laughing at his own joke, he stops when he sees that I'm less than amused.

"First of all, what kind of smug prick laughs at his own joke? Second of all, you just earned yourself two months of janitorial duty." Smiling as I say it, I turn around as the shuttle is nearing the station.

"I love you too Ethan."

The shuttle door opens, and when Davis and I step out we're greeted by 7 mercenaries, all with weapons raised, ready to shoot. "Didn't I tell you to turn around and leave?" The Battarian, now visibly upset, steps forward.

Jericho begins to raise their weapons, I put my hand up to stop them. "We're not here to cause problems, but we're not leaving until we speak to Aria." Trying to keep my composure, I lower my hand and turn my attention to the Battarian and his mercs.

"Aria doesn't speak to the UGDF, now leave." Pointing to the shuttle, he gets in my face. His breath stinks of alcohol, and he's sweating profusely. His voice breaking as he gets even angrier.

"I'm not leaving, Now take us to Aria." Not backing down, my brow furrows.

The Battarian steps back and crosses his arms, a slight smile forming on his face. "Maybe I didn't make myself clear," without hesitating, he draws his Carnifex and aims it at me, pressing it against my forehead. "You're leaving, either on your shuttle or in a body bag, your choice human."

"Seems I didn't make myself clear, I'm not leaving without seeing Aria, you can take me to her, or I can just walk over to her myself."

Laughing, the Batarrian presses the Carnifex harder against my head. "You realize I have a gun to your head right? Are all humans this stupid?"

I smile and gesture downward, the Batarrian glances down and sees the Phalanx I have pressed against his stomach. He looks back up, furious. "When did-"

"The second you got in my face. Now take me to Aria." Gritting my teeth, I raise my Phalanx to his chin.

"Grell, what are you doing?" A voice sounds over the small hallway. "You said you could handle this, bring them to me. Now." Sounding furious the voice who I assume is Aria, orders the Battarian Grell to take us to her.

"Dammit, follow me, but no more than two, you try anything you're dead." Grimacing, Grell turns around and holsters his Carnifex.

I turn my head and nod to the rest of Jericho, who all get back in the shuttle, except for Davis, who follows me as I follow Grell. "You gonna be okay?" Worried I turn my head to Davis as we walk. He nods his head and we continue forward. The mercenaries follow closely behind us with their fingers on their triggers. "Isn't this a little much? What are two people gonna do against an entire station?" Annoyed, I scoff as one of the mercs presses his gun against my back. _Asshole._

"Hah, you think they're here for you? They're here for him," stopping Grell turns around and points at Davis. "Last I remember, Danu told me to kill you the next time I see you and that walking piss stain you call a little brother."

Gritting his teeth, Davis glares at Grell, clenching his fists. "You say one more word about Leonard-"

"You'll what? Send your drone to handle your business like you did with Danu's sister? Pathetic?" Laughing, Grell turns back around and continues walking.

"Not now Martin, when we have what we need do what you want I won't stop you." Keeping my voice down, I grab Davis' arm. Nodding, Davis slows his breathing and calms himself down.

After a few moments of hushed whispers from the mercs behind us, we enter Afterlife, Omega's premiere nightclub. _This place is like a scumbag heaven, nothing but booze and Asari hookers._ Flashing lights, deafening music, and enough alcohol to put a Krogan in the hospital. Afterlife is sprawling with party goers and mercenaries looking for work. I look to my left to see a Salarian face down on the bar, a Krogan bouncer grabs him by his shoulder and quite literally throws him off of the stool he was sitting on. After a few seconds, the Salarian slowly makes his way to his feet and stumbles out of the bar. We get to a staircase leading up to the Balcony overlooking the nightclub and I glance up at the other balconies above us.

"Get a move on, Aria doesn't have all day to wait on your sorry ass." Grell yells from the top of the staircase.

I hurriedly run up the staircase where Grell and Davis are waiting, the other mercs wait at the bottom. I turn a corner to see a lone Asari sitting on an oversized couch with two Battarians standing on either side of her. "You must be Aria," The Asari stands up, and without hesitating grabs the pistol on the small table in front of her, and shoves it in my face. "That supposed to scare me?"

"No, just letting you know how easy it would be," She turns around and sets the pistol back on the table. "Now what do you want?"

 _Right to the point, good._ "Victor Shaw, you know the name? You should, seeing as he's the reason Cerberus had Omega under it's thumb during the Reaper war."

Scowling, Aria sits down and crosses her legs. "I do, but if you think I'm giving you the information I have on him than you're even more stupid than you look. I want Shaw's head served to me on a silver platter and anyone who gets in my way, is dead. Because I only have one rule. D-"

"Don't fuck with Aria, yeah yeah I've heard it all before. Now I need what you have on Shaw, and I'm not leaving without it." I cross my arms and lean against the wall next to me.

Aria stands up, visibly furious, and gets in my face, her hands glowing with biotic energy. "You think you can come into **my** station, and make demands?! You have 5 seconds to leave before I rip you apart and toss you out the nearest airlock."

She begins counting as she walks around the room. She gets to four when she notices the sniper dot on her chest, she stops and whips her head to face me, seeing the smile on my face.

"That's the problem with people like you Aria, you're so used to being in power that the second it's taken away from you, you're lost, running around not knowing what to do, searching for answers. As you can see, I've dealt with your type in the past. Now you have two options, either you can give me what you have on Shaw, or…" I point to the red dot on her chest and laugh.

Aria shakes her head and smiles. "Okay, you got one on me, not a lot of people can say the same. I'll give you all the information I have on Shaw, but I have a problem I need taken care of first."

I gesture to Nelson, who is on the balcony directly in front of us, and he puts his weapon away. I look at Davis, who is now smiling, and turn my attention back to Aria. "Glad you saw reason, now what needs taken care of?"

Chapter 9 is finally done and Chapter 10 is coming soon. As always if you enjoyed, let me know in the comments, leave a review and if you haven't already, check out the Mass Effect FanFiction writers page on FaceBook. Thank you for taking time to read and have a fantastic day.


	12. Chapter 10

"About my problem," Aria pauses, she shifts her icy glare to Davis. Who is standing next to me, hands firmly behind his back. "Your friend here might not like it." The Asari leans forward, grabbing the glass of wine on the table in front of her.

"And why is that?" Davis says nervously, adjusting his posture, straightening his shoulders.

"I'm not talking to you," Aria looks at me. "I'm talking to him."

"Okay, why would anyone not like solving your problems," I mutter sarcastically. "It's not like you have a small army of thugs ready to die for you."

Aria leans forward grinning, activating a small projection on the wall behind us. A picture appears, showing a Turian. It's a male, with blood red markings on his face in the shape of a star on his right eye. Burn marks litter the left side of his face, the mandible on that side completely burned off. "Okay, what? You want me to kill him? I'm not your personal assassin T'loak. I don't even know who this is."

"Garrik Danu." Davis clenches his jaw, his fists tightening behind his back.

I put my hand on his shoulder. "You know him?"

Davis nods, blinking back tears. "He's a slave trader."

My jaw dropping, I glare at Aria who is still sitting behind us, sipping her wine. "You knew about this?"

"No, until recently the slippery bastard managed to keep his 'operations' hidden from me." Aria leans back crossing her legs.

I look at Davis, his hands have started bleeding from clenching them so hard. "We have to kill him." He whispers, his breath shuddering.

"We will," I reply, squeezing his shoulder before walking towards Aria. Her mercs tightening their grips on their weapons. "Where can we find him?"

Grinning, Aria runs her finger along the rim of the glass. "Shipping yards, Grell will send the coordinates. As well as a few skycars to take you there." She takes another sip before gesturing to Grell, who opens his Omni-Tool.

"There, now leave." The aging Batarian glares at me, his eyes narrowing.

"Not so fast Grell, there is still the matter of you, saying you could handle the situation," Aria looks at the now confused Batarian. Standing up, she puts her wine on table before grabbing the pistol next to it. "You failed to keep your promise, now you suffer the consequences of your failure." Without hesitation, she places the gun to his head and pulls the trigger. She shifts her stare to Davis and I, frozen by the shock of what we just saw. "Don't you have somewhere to be?"

Davis and I hurriedly make our way out of Afterlife. Nelson and the rest of Jericho are waiting outside at the bottom of the small staircase leading to the nightclub. Upon seeing the two of us walking out, they rush toward us. "We heard the shot, what the hell happened?" Freddy asks, staring at the shocked expressions Davis and I are sharing.

"Aria just shot that Batarian," _I knew she was ruthless, but that… that was just cruel. That guy was an asshole yeah, but he didn't deserve that._ "She didn't even flinch." My throat moving as I swallow the mountain in my throat.

Shy covers her mouth, her eyes widening. Nelson leans on the railing, his hand on Davis' shoulder. I walk past them all, stopping at the bottom of the staircase. I pull up my Omni-Tool and open the coordinates Grell sent before… it happened. The shipping yard is located at the top of the station, at the edge of the asteroid it's built in. Jericho all coming behind me, they look at the map on my Omni-Tool.

"What the hell is that?" Freddy asks, his eyes narrow at the projection.

"Shipping yard, there's a Turian there," I close the map, turning around to face them. "Garrik Danu. He's a slave trader."

"He's more than that," Davis cuts in, scowling. "He takes kids, rips them from their families, trades them off to the highest bidder."

"How the hell do you know that?" Nelson asks, his hand still on Davis' shoulder.

A single tear falls from Davis' eye, dropping to the ground below us. "Because I was one of them, so was…"

"Hey, he's not gonna take anyone ever again." Shy grabs his hand, placing another on his cheek.

"She's right. Now let's go get the son of a bitch." I turn and start walking to the skycars Aria acquired for us located in an alleyway near Afterlife, Jericho right behind me. Davis, Shy and I take one with Freddy and Nelson in the other. Omega is known for a lot of things, drugs, crime, and shitty drivers. The long, arduous drive to the top of the station almost ended sooner than expected when a freighter got a little to eager and almost hit us. _That assholes gonna kill someone. I swear if I never see this station again I will die, a happy man_. After a few more minutes of driving in silence, the shipping yard comes into view. Other than a few loading mechs, not a soul in sight. Landing just a few seconds after Freddy and Nelson, the rest of us exit our skycar.

"Beat ya." Freddy brags, leaning against his skycar.

"Well congratulations Lieutenant," I raise my hand, giving him the finger. "Here's your prize."

"Thank you Commander," He gasps, smiling. "There's so many people to thank."

"Focus smart ass, we have a job to do." I step away from him, walking toward the others who are huddled together.

"Stella, finish your scan yet?" Davis asks his drone, it lets out a series of beeps. "Good girl, send the data to my Omni-Tool."

"I see you came up with a name." Shy smiles.

"Yeah, I remembered the little girl we met during the war. That was her name." Davis' lips curve looking at his drone, letting out another series of beeps.

"She find anything?" I ask kneeling next to the two of them.

Davis nods, pulling up his Omni-Tool. "Map of the entire yard. If Danu is still here, he can't hide."

 _If he tries, he'll have plenty of places to do it._ This area is massive, shipping containers filled with God knows what are stacked all the way to the ceiling dozens of feet above us with no end in sight. "Come on, we won't find him sitting here." I stand up, walking toward one of the containers.

"Commander. I'm seeing movement." Nelson's voice coming in through comms basically at a whisper, he stands on top of one of the containers.

"Where? How many?" I ask, pressing my back against the container.

"A lot, moving in fast," His voice sounding rushed. "I think they know we're here."

Shit. "Okay, get ready. On my signal, we'll nail these bastards." _This place was empty a few moments ago… how the hell did they manage that?_

A gun, appears through the edge of the container, moving slowly. Their footsteps are silent, trained. Multiple mercs walk past me, agonizingly slow in their movement. They make their way to the shuttle. "Active heat signatures, they're not far." The merc peers into the skycar. His voice gruff, but anxious.

Well, you're not wrong. Weapons raised, we move in, stopping before we get to close. "Hi boys" I say smiling. The mercs whip around aiming their weapons. "Two options, tell us where Danu is," My grip tightens on my Mattock. "Or those skycars get a new paint job."

"Is this really worth it?" One of the mercs, a Salarian, turns his head toward a Krogan. Guess he's in charge.

"That freak doesn't pay us enough for this," The Krogan throws his gun on the ground, followed shortly after by the other mercs. "Foreman's office, end of the yard."

"Glad you saw reason." I turn my head to Davis and nod. His drone flies out of his Omni-Tool, stunning the mercs with an electric shock. They fall to the ground.

"You really can't trust the help these days." Freddy jokes, throwing the mercs' weapons off of the edge of the yard.

Davis pulls up the map, zooming in on the foreman's office. "It's four miles from here," He sighs. "If we're lucky, we'll catch him before he finds out they won't be coming back."

"Any ideas?" I ask. He points behind me, I turn around to see the loading carts. "You're not-"

"I'm not seeing any other option here, unless you want to walk." He replies. _Son of a bitch._

"Fine," I motion Jericho to the loading carts, we step on one at a time. "Your idea, so you're driving." I grimace, my hands gripping the rails so tight my hands lose their color.

"Afraid of heights Commander?" Nelson teases.

"Kiss my ass." _Just don't look down, and I'll be fine._

The cart jolts, shooting to one side as gunfire rains down on us. Shy, thinking quickly summons a biotic shield around us. Davis grabs the lever, thrusting it forward as hard as he can, accelerating it to its limit. _This is such bullshit!_

The shield begins to fade as the gunfire keeps coming relentlessly. Looking around, I notice that whatever's shooting us isn't a person. An array of turrets line the shipping containers above us. On instinct, I grab the shifter, moving the cart above the crates. The turrets never cease as the cart rises, still shooting as we get above them. The sounds of bullets ricocheting at our feet are all I hear. Shy falls to the ground, her nose bleeding. Davis reaches his arms out and catches her. He tapps her cheeks a few times. Her eyes slowly opening, the fear in his eyes turning to joy as she wakes up. "You okay?"

Slowly, she nods. "I'm fine. Now can you please let me go?" Davis helps her to her feet, keeping her from falling over.

"Stella, take care of those turrets would you?" The drone whips out of his Omni-Tool, zooming down below us as the turrets are still firing. It lets out an EMP disabling all the turrets, the pulse stopping just short of the cart. _Glad it's on our side_. "There's the Foreman's office, we'll be there in no time."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," A coarse, dual toned voice comes out of our Omni-Tools. "I don't know who you are, but I'm gonna make sure that you get back to whoever sent you in tiny. Little. Pieces." A rocket flies out of the Foreman's office, heading for us.

"Jump!" I yell, grabbing the railing, launching myself over. Landing on a shipping crate, I immediately sprint toward the office. Jumping over the gaps, I look over my shoulder to see the others having the same idea. "Don't look down, don't look down." I repeat, jumping over the last gap. I grab the bar and pull myself over it. I turn around to help the others up. A gun presses against the back of my head.

"Make one move and you're dead." The voice is the same one we heard before. The others stop, raising their weapons to whoever has the gun to my head. "Call them off. Or you die." I raise my hand, they lower their weapons. "Who sent you?"

"Your mother, she says hello." I wince as a fist connects with the side of my stomach.

"You really don't want to piss me off," He grabs my shoulder and turns me around. "Now who sent you?" Pressing the gun harder on my forehead, the scarred Turian leans in close.

I headbutt him, causing him to reel back, stumbling over. I press the heel of my hand to my head and wince at the sudden headache before running over and grabbing Danu's pistol. I raise it at him. "Anyone ever tell you about breath mints? They work wonders." Jericho climbs the railing behind me, raising their weapons as they get over.

Davis climbs over last. Once he turns around, Danu's grimace turns into a scowl. His breath rapidly getting faster as anger fills his eyes. "You! You're a dead man!" Screaming, he jumps to his feet. Freddy smashes the butt of his gun on his face, cracking his carapace. "My sisters dead because of you. You fucking monster."

Davis grabs his Predator, placing it against the Turians skull, he blinks back tears. "You kidnap kids, take them from there families. You sell them to the highest bidder and I'm the monster?!" Screaming, he bashes his gun against the Turian, causing him to fall over.

Shy puts her arm around Davis, hugging him as he cries. I put my hand on his shoulder. _He deserves better than this._

Quickly, Danu takes advantage, reaching for Freddy's gun. He bashes it against the wall, it falls out of both their hands, sliding along the ground. Before any of us can react, Stella flies out of Davis' Omni-Tool, activating her flamethrower she roasts that bastard alive. His screams echo across the shipping yard. The stench of charred flesh causes us all to recoil. Flailing his arms, Danu hits a lever as his lifeless body collapses to the ground. Davis walks up to his body, and spits on him.

"Piece of shit." He mutters as he turns back around.

I walk up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "You okay?"

He nods. "I am now."

"Uh, Commander, you might want to see this." Nelson calls to us.

We both walk out of the room and onto the catwalk. _Holy shit_. The shipping containers all open, what's inside… "We need to get ahold of Aria. Tell her we need shuttles. A lot of them."

Chapter 10 ladies and gents, finally done and ready to read. As always, feel free to leave a comment as your reviews mean that I can improve. Again, if you have Facebook check out the Mass Effect Fanfiction writers page.


	13. Chapter 11

Yes, I know. I haven't updated this series in what feels like an eternity but life has a way of being an absolute cuck. But I'm back with a new chapter and as always I hope you enjoy.

Finishing typing out my report on my personal terminal, I turn my head to see Davis standing in the doorway of my cabin, hands behind his back.

"Aria just sent word. Her mercenaries finished with their evacuation efforts." A very present smile runs across his face with each word. After we left Omega, Aria sent shuttle after shuttle to the shipping yard where Danu was keeping his 'guests'. Countless children were taken into Aria's custody, not the ideal scenario but with what little time we have and the limited resources available to us… it's the best of a bad situation.

 _At least Danu is where he belongs._

Sighing with relief, I tilt my head back. "Good, " _Aria may have ruthless methods, but her motives… less so._ "How are you doing?" I ask.

Davis nods his head. "Better, now that I know he can't hurt anyone else."

I snicker. "Not what I meant, I see the way you act around Shy, " I straighten my posture and take a more serious tone. "You know the regulations about fraternization, " Davis begins to sweat, clearing his throat. "Martin… I'm fucking with you. Do you think I'd be the one to point out the regs when I have an obvious relationship with a crew member?" I laugh as Davis lets out a sigh of relief. "Have you asked her out yet?" I ask, standing up.

He shakes his head. "I wouldn't even know how to go about that sort of thing…"

I rub the bridge of my nose. "Martin, it's not rocket science. Just tell her how you feel, I know it's easier said than done but listen. You're always talking about statistics, well here's another one for you… you miss 100% of the shots you don't take, and if you don't take this shot you're gonna be asking yourself 'what if?' for the rest of your life."

Davis takes a second to ponder what I said. After a few moments, he nods his head. My Omni-tool flashes with a message to meet in the hangar bay. I stand up and walk toward the elevator with Davis in tow. Once the door opens, I motion for Davis to talk to Shy, who is standing at a workbench. I make my way to the person who sent the message to meet.

"You wanted to see me, sir?" I ask as Captain Michaelson turns to face me.

"You need to see this." Almost instantly, he hands me a datapad as a video begins to play.

The video is taken from a hovercam. A man is standing in the frame, he's human, with the now all too familiar smug sense of self-righteousness. The long shoulder-length grey hair, and near-perfect posture give it away. "Shaw…" I grimace as the vid plays.

"There is a popular phrase among humans, " Shaw sits at the table in front of him. "An eye for an eye. So simple but yet… very powerful in its meaning. Alliance headquarters is destroyed, and only a few short days later I hear of a Turian smuggling ring involving human children. An eye for an eye, or in this case… a tooth for a tooth, " he grins. "Funny how certain events come to pass after supposed 'tragedies', one simple building is destroyed then something as awful as human trafficking is not only found but immediately snuffed out. Imagine what other catastrophes can be avoided. Imagine the possibilities for humanity if aliens were no longer a threat. What if I told you this dream could become a reality?" Shaw's grin widens with each word. "What if I told you that humanity could easily be put at the top of the galactic food chain? What if I-"

Captain Michaelson turns off the vid. "That son of a bitch is trying to take credit for what you and your team did. Even worse… he's trying to profit off of it, this vid is a glorified recruitment campaign," Gritting his teeth, Michaelson regains his composure and straightens his posture. "Director Daava sent word, she wants Jericho to report back to the Pillar as soon as possible."

"Just us? What about you?" I query.

"If I had answers son, you'd be the first to know," He places his hand on my shoulder, before walking us toward the window in the hangar bay. He looks into the never-ending expanse of countless stars in front of us.

"Thirty-five years."

"Sir?"

"I've been in the military thirty-five years, and not once has the higher-ups bullshit surprised me. Daava may be cold, even heartless at times, and hell you've seen that first hand, " He removes his cap, straightening his hair before placing it back on his head. "But she knows when to admit she's wrong, and with what you did on Omega… now is one of those times."

"If you say so, sir." I snicker.

Michaelson gestures towards Jericho, Davis is calibrating Stella. Shy is next to him hard at work, they're talking, both laughing. Davis goes to wipe the sweat off of his forehead, Shy grabs a rag, steps closer and wipes it away for him.

Smiling, Michaelson and I look across to see Nelson sparring with Freddy.

"I'm sure by now you've learned the most important rule when it comes to command." Michaelson comments.

"Sir?" I ask.

He laughs, "At the end of the day it doesn't matter what you're fighting for. But who you're fighting with." Michaelson states, walking toward the elevator and stepping inside.

It's doesn't matter what you're fighting for… but who you're fighting with. Those words echo in my mind as I look around the hangar bay. I walk toward Freddy as he and Nelson continue sparring.

"You both seem hard at work." I exclaim.

Freddy whips his head around, only for Nelson to take advantage. He grabs Freddy's hand, wrapping it over his shoulder. He uses the momentum and tosses him over his shoulder.

Laughing, Nelson extends his hand and helps Freddy to his feet.

"Okay, very funny Nelson. But you know I had you on the ropes." Freddy mutters.

"I'm sure you did Lt. But you were the one who took your eyes off of me." Nelson replies, smiling.

"Whatever the case, I need you two to listen up." I call over Davis and Shy, who both rush over.

I explain the situation and send them to their bunks to rest before we reach the Pillar.

Once we reach the Pillar, Jericho and I enter the Director's office.

"Commander Miller, it seems I have misjudged you. You, as well as your team saved countless lives on Omega. You even managed to get every bit of information Aria T'loak had on Victor Shaw,"

Her lips slightly curving, Director Daava leans back, crossing her arms. "Since you've proven yourself more than capable, I'm placing you in charge of the investigation on Shaw and his mercenaries."

 _Just me?_ "Ma'am, I have to ask, " I swallow as my posture straightens. "You said you were placing me in charge of the investigation. But Captain Michaelson is in charge of the Manhattan."

Daava leans forward, her lips curve. "This is true Commander or should I call start calling you Captain now?"

"But I-" I step back, trying to comprehend what I'm hearing.

"Ronald and I have already discussed it. As of this moment… the Manhattan is yours." It's at this moment the door to her office opens behind us.

"Well it seems you've started without me." Captain Michaelson walks in.

 _Speak of the devil._ "Sir, is this true?!" I blurt out.

Michaelson straightens his uniform, smiling as he what I'm asking. "You were supposed to wait until I got here." He mutters to Director Daava as she chuckles.

"You're getting slow in your old age, and I couldn't wait anymore." She states.

Captain Michaelson walks to the director's desk, leaning against it. "Well, now that the cats out of the bag I suppose it's time for you to take the reigns."

 _Take the reigns? Why the hell is he being so calm about this_?! "Sir, you can't be serious!" I yell.

Michaelson takes a deep breath. "Son I've been in charge of that ship for over twenty-five years. My time has come and gone, so now I'm giving you the opportunity to prove me right," He takes a second to compose himself. "I told you that the Manhattan was my ship, but she housed your crew."

"I…" I stammer, unable to find the words I want to speak.

Michaelson takes off his cap, placing it on the desk behind him. "I meant every word of that. Don't try to argue because this is non-negotiable."

He takes his captains bars off of his uniform, walking up to me. He replaces my Commander bars with the bars once on his uniform. "Congratulations… Captain."


End file.
